CEBU CITY, Cebu  — The world?s most famous dancing inmates could be dancing with bald heads after the prisoners decided to shave off and donate their hair in efforts to contain the oil spill in Cordova town.

Provincial Capitol sources said the inmates at the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center (CPDRC) were scheduled to have their heads shaven yesterday afternoon.

The hair will be donated to the badly hit town, where operations to contain the oil spill as a result of the sinking of the M/V St. Thomas Aquinas after it collided with cargo vessel Sulpicio Express 7 at Lauis Ledge, Talisay City, last Friday night.

The death toll in the sea tragedy has now reached 75 while the search and retrieval operations continued yesterday, said the Philippine Coast Guard.

Aside from the CPDRC inmates, prisoners at the Lapu-Lapu City Jail said they will also all have their heads shaven and donate their hair to the ongoing oil spill containment activities.

?They will all go bald just to help in the cleaning of the coastlines affected by the oil spill,? said a jail officer, who refused to be identified.

The Lapu-Lapu city government has confirmed that the inmates have decided to go bald in order to donate their hair.

Cordova has been asking for human and animal hair or any other hair-like materials that the town can use as alternative oil spill booms. The use of said materials proved effective in containing the oil spill in Guimaras Island in August 2006.

Aside from human hair, the town is also asking for pet hair, chicken feathers, rice and corn straws that can be used as oil absorbers. The materials will be wrapped in stockings or mesh to serve as improvised oil spill booms.

Based on the initial dive and assessment from Malayan, Nippon Salvage, and International Tanker Oil Pollution Federation (ITOPF), it will take approximately two weeks before the oil spill is totally contained.

Lito Salvio, assistant vice president for shipping management of 2Go, announced that one of the two identified holes was plugged, with assurance of no further leakage from the particular container. The technical divers also noted minimal oil leakage from the earlier leaking container. 

?If the vessel were a fuel tanker, the damage could have been worse. But since it was a passenger ship, the damage is not alarming,? Salvio said, adding trapped fuel oil remains underwater since most of the leaked oil already rose to the surface.

Japanese salvage master Jiro Ohkubo said Nippon Salvage is very experienced in this field. He also said he, along with salvage divers Micharu Ardo and Masakazu Nozaki, are happy to help Cebu in containing the oil spill.

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