Beaches were being cordoned off and residents of La Paz and nearby villages were being told to move inland after two weeks spent battling the black ooze from the Solar I tanker that sank on August 11.

The orders were issued by Guimaras governor Rahman Nava based on warnings issued by toxicologists commissioned by the health department, said Ramon Ortiz, a La Paz official who manned a checkpoint outside the village.

The fishing hamlet of about 400 people was almost deserted at noon as Ortiz, armed with a machete and a protective face mask and aided by other district officials, flagged down motorists to enforce the order.

At the community basketball court, blue tarp partly covered a huge stack of sacks laden with oil-slicked sand and debris.

The pile, which Ortiz said weighed about 100 tonnes, was oozing with a sticky asphalt-colored fluid under the brutal heat of the tropical sun.

Jimmy Baban, head of a provincial government task force leading the cleanup of the impoverished island, said the toxicologists' report found very high levels of hydrogen sulfides, benzene, and other poisonous components of refined oil products.

The study found these chemicals were "several thousands" of parts higher than the safe threshold ratios set by the US government, Baban told AFP.

"There have been deaths, but that is a sensitive issue," he said. Medical experts have yet to issue their final findings on whether the deaths, of which at least two have been reported, were "really caused by the oil spill."

Baban and Ortiz both complained that the owners of the sunken tanker, as well as local refiner Petron Corp. which owned the cargo of about half a million gallons of industrial fuel, had so far failed to collect the huge volumes of oil waste mopped up by residents.

"They told us, 'Tomorrow,' but they have not showed up after two weeks," Ortiz said.

About 30 families are staying at the La Paz village evacuation center set up by the local government, but Ortiz said many more were staying with their families. The evacuations began on Tuesday, he added.

At the nearby village of Cabalagnan, three families were crammed in to the tiny health center as visiting government doctors diagnosed a girl with symptoms of headache and dizziness.

Baban said other families were temporarily housed at the local elementary school and at a home for the elderly.

Fourteen other families had been told to leave their homes in the coastal village of Lucmayan, while governor Nava had advised all residents of Tando and San Roque villages to leave as well, he added.

In La Paz, Ortiz showed residents who insisted on going back to their homes a copy of the governor's orders barring people from venturing "within 100 meters (yards) of the coast."

Eva Emasa, a municipal government worker, told AFP she left her Cabalagnan home with her daughter and granddaughter on Wednesday on the local government's advice that the oil spill was "hazardous to our health."

"During the first few days the smell was really strong. Afterwards we got used to it but then we started suffering headaches and chest pains," she said.

Most of the ship's cargo is feared to be still in its hold under up to 3,000 feet of water, fuelling fears of an extended catastrophe.

A Japanese survey ship on Thursday located the stricken ship and joined efforts to clean up the spill that the coastguard warned could take months to complete.

The Shinsei Maru's mission was to deploy its remote-controlled submersible for a sonar sweep of the ill-fated tanker, coastguard chief Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan said.

He said based on the ship's findings, the coastguard would decide whether to refloat the tanker or siphon off its contents to prevent a further leak. A third, more costly option is to bury the entire ship in sand.

Japanese ship locates stricken Philippine tanker

A Japanese survey ship located Thursday the remains of a sunken tanker three weeks after it went down in rough seas causing the Philippines' worst ever oil spill, the coastguard said.

The Shinsei Maru arrived at the port of Iloilo Wednesday night and at first light sailed to the nearby island of Guimaras where the sunken Solar I lies deep on the seabed with nearly half a million gallons of oil still on board.

The Japanese vessel conducted a sonar sweep of the area where the government's mapping bureau said the Solar I went under and reported having detected the wreck, coastguard chief Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan told AFP.

A remote-controlled submersible would also be deployed to check on the condition of the ill-fated tanker and to determine how it could be raised or its cargo siphoned off, he said.

"The most important thing right now is that we have located the ship, the remote-operated vehicle has identified the Solar I, its position and it is upright on the seabed," Gosingan told AFP.

"We expect the clean-up to take more than six months," he added.

Apart from the Japanese ship, marine experts and biologists from the United States, France and Australia as well as environmental groups were in the area.

The Shinsei Maru will conduct further underwater surveys to check whether the remaining oil inside the hull is leaking, and experts on the ship will come up with recommendations on how to proceed with the clean-up, Gosingan said.

Based on the findings, the coast guard will decide whether to refloat the tanker or siphon off its contents to prevent a further spill. A third, more costly option is to bury the entire ship in sand.

Solar I, owned by the Filipino-registered Sunshine Maritime Development Corp., sank in high seas on August 11 carrying some 500,000 gallons of industrial oil.

About 50,000 gallons has leaked so far, damaging fertile fishing grounds, white sandy beaches and hundreds of kilometers (miles) of shoreline. Two of the ship's crew remain missing.

The tanker's charterer, Petron Corp., said its personnel would not leave the area until all the affected areas had been rehabilitated.

"Petron is cleaning some 200 kilometers of shoreline, and we estimate to finish all between 45 and 60 days," said Carlos Tan, Petron's health, safety and environment manager.

Marine biologists had warned that unchecked damage from the oil spill could potentially rival the impact of the Exxon Valdez on the Alaskan shoreline when it floundered off its coast in 1989.

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