NEWSFLASH!!! GMA gags Coast Guard

ANC News Channel has just reported that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo has ordered the Philippine Coast Guard not to entertain any more questions from the media regarding the oil spill in Guimaras! What are you trying to hide Madame Presidentita? Baw nano, nabuang ka na ‘day?

This blog has also received a tip that tomorrow, during her visit to Guimaras, GMA intends to announce that 30 barangays are “safe” from the oil spill. We just don’t know if this will be before or after her regular parade at the slick-free beach of Alubihod? Ay ambot!

Tsk, tsk, tsk…who is advising this woman on PR strategy? The truth about Petron, and now the government’s ineptitude about the oil spill, won’t be buried on just her say so!

Laban Guimarasnon!

(More on this story at Gag order, Sept. 6, 2006.)

Oil spill evacuees asking for toothpaste, soaps

By Hazel P. Villa

NUEVA VALENCIA, Guimaras — Evacuees here and those residing in the islands affected by the oil spill from MT Solar 1 that sank off southern Guimaras on August 11 are thankful for the food and water provided by government institutions, Petron Corp., and donors – but the evacuees said they badly need toothpaste and body and laundry soaps.

The Red Cross Guimaras Chapter said that even before residents of hard-hit areas in Cabalagnan, Lapaz and Tando were evacuated this week, they have been asking for soaps and toothpaste.

Some 400 people or at least 134 families in the shorelines of Cabalagnan and Lapaz here have been evacuated or are staying with relatives.

Toxicity tests by Department of Health officials have shown high levels of hydrogen sulfide and aromatic hydrocarbons like benzene, ethyl benzene, toluene and xylene in the two coastal villages.

“Aside from food items, people in affected areas are asking for stuff for their personal hygiene like bath soap, laundry soap and toothpaste because they don’t have the money to buy these,” said Anna Maria “Lally” Nava, officer in charge of the Red Cross Guimaras Chapter.

Some 6,156 families, or 30,531 persons, in the coastal areas of four towns in Guimaras and two towns in Iloilo have been affected by the oil spill as of September 1, said the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council.

Nava, wife of Jordan mayor Felipe Nava, said the Red Cross and other relief agencies have mostly received canned goods, rice and noodles but not much of coffee, sugar and milk, which the affected residents are also asking for.

The Red Cross said small islets like Unisan, Panabulon, Naoway and Guiwanon in Nueva Valencia are also asking for food and toiletries.

(For the full story, click Posted in News, Philippines oil spill | Leave a Comment »

UNDP: Manual cleanup a health risk to locals

September 5, 2006

AFTER losing their jobs last month to the country’s worst oil spill, Guimaras fishermen now face great health risks from their temporary work of removing bunker oil using their bare hands, GMANews.TV learned from an official of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Tuesday.

“People do not have the right equipment. Lack of proper equipment and technical capacity would have no impact in the cleanup,” Shohei Matsura, UNDP Philippines program officer for the environment, told GMANews.TV in a phone interview.

Matsura urged the Philippine government and international donors to pay attention to the potential health problems arising from the lack of sophisticated equipment and systems in the cleanup.

UNDP has recently pledged support in the cleanup of the country’s worst maritime disaster, committing US$100,000 or about P5 million for environmental impact assessment and development of alternative livelihood for affected communities.

UNDP partners with the environment department and the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) for the impact assessment, Matsura said.

The MT Solar I sank off the southern coast of Guimaras on August 11 after battling rough waves. More than 200,000 liters of the vessel’s 2.2 million-liter cargo of bunker oil spilled into the sea since then.

(Click Manual, Sept. 5, 2006, for the rest of the story.)

Oil spill victims urged to file claims; ‘Solar I’ captain faces criminal raps

September 5, 2006

By Joel Guinto and Tetch Torres

THE government is urging victims of the Guimaras oil spill to file for claims from an international organization of oil companies that will shell out as much as $300 million for the disaster.

This developed as a Department of Justice body recommended the filing of criminal charges against the captain of a tanker that caused one of the worst oil spills in the country after sinking off Guimaras Strait.

Government officials are studying whether the victims should file the claims individually or as a group before the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC), an organization of oil firms in 190 countries, said Defense Secretary and concurrent National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) chairman Avelino Cruz Jr.

“The insurance covers main types of damages, property damage, cleanup operations, preventive measures (against oil spills), losses in fishery, aquaculture and tourism, including consequential losses and pure economic losses,” Cruz said.

If a beach resort is affected by the oil spill, for example, Cruz said its owner could ask the IOPC to compensate it for the net profit the resort would have earned had it not been closed because of the spill.

The prescription period for the filing of claims is six years from the time of the oil spill, Cruz said.

Meanwhile, Ernesto Pineda, justice undersecretary, said Tuesday that Capt. Norberto Aguro could be charged with violating the Revise Penal Code for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide and damage to property because crewmembers Ian Nabua and Victor Moragos have not been found since the tanker sank last August 11.

Pineda said Aguro’s professional license has expired and that his Master Mariner’s certificate was limited to chemical tankers only.

“He [Aguro] was qualified to run a chemical tanker, not an oil tanker. Yet he took command of ‘Solar I,’ which was an oil tanker,” Pineda said.

Pineda said Aguro also admitted that one of the compartments of “Solar I” was damaged while the ship was en route from the province of Bataan to Zamboanga province.

And instead of seeking shelter in the province of Iloilo amid the rough waves, Pineda said Aguro chose to push through with the trip.

Solar I, a single-hulled tanker, sank in rough seas carrying some two million liters of bunker fuel.

Pineda added that another factor that contributed to the sinking of Solar 1 was that it was overloaded after Petron sent additional personnel as “convoys.”

The DoJ will resume its inquiry this Friday to determine whether Petron officials and owners/incorporators (Filipinos and Japanese) of Sunshine Maritime Dev. and Corp. (SMDC) and Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) could be held liable.

(Click Claims, Sept. 5, 2006, for the full story.)

Petron’s PR machinations part 2

September 5, 2006

MY, my! The Petron executives are certainly pulling out all the stops to make sure the company gets more favorable treatment in the news on its part in the oil spill tragedy. My sources tell me that it has persuaded its long-time advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, to come out with specific ads on the oil spill issue. Petron has just bought a lot of airtime both on Visayan TV and radio stations, as well as space in local newspapers, to plead their innocence.

The advertising agency’s reps are also helping in the PR aspect–maybe Petron execs realized their PR consultant isn’t helping by distributing P500 to local reporters. So Saatchi handled today’s pre-GMA press briefing in Iloilo, as the presidentita will be visiting Guimaras Island again tomorrow purportedly to check on the clean-up operations on the oil spill. But again, she will be visiting a slick-free Raymen Beach Resort at Bgy. Alubihod. (Note to Joanne Zapanta: Can you please do something about GMA’s outfit if she goes walking on the beach again? That fuschia outfit was really hideous! Bleah!)

As GMA wants more favorable coverage, Petron’s PR and advertising agencies are trying to arrange a junket for the local news media to Bacolod! Why Bacolod? To get them out of the way of the real coverage of course! Keep the public disinformed about what’s actually happening (or in Petron’s case, not happening) in Guimaras.

Sino ba talaga ang niloloko nyo ha?

Chest pains, skin diseases top Guimaras concerns

September 5, 2006

RESPIRATORY illnesses and skin irritations are among the top concerns of doctors who were sent to treat health problems that caused by the oil spill from the sunken M/T Solar 1 in Guimaras, the National Disaster Coordinating Council said Tuesday.

“Karaniwan ang mga complaint nila ay respiratory illnesses, about 280 [patients], cough and fever, runny nose, ganyan, mga dermatitis, mga skin irritation mga 43 (Most of the complaints were about respiratory illnesses like cough, fever, runny nose, dermatitis and skin irritation),” NDCC executive director Glenn Rabonza told a DZMM interview.

He said that doctors from the Department of Health have so far treated 647 patients.

Rabonza said DOH has sent more doctors to the island to attend to sick villagers and to prevent an epidemic from spreading among evacuees.

He denied that the reported death of a two-year-old boy was caused by the oil spill. He said that the boy’s asthma was aggravated but not caused by fumes from the sludge.

“[The boy] had asthma [before the oil spill],” Rabonza said.

(For the full story, click Chest pains, Sept. 5, 2006.)

The ties that bind…Saudi Aramco and GMA

September 5, 2006

GUESS what I found floating around cyberspace? An old column by Philipppine Star’s Max Soliven on President Arroyo and Saudi Aramco/Petron. It explains a lot.

BY THE WAY by MAX SOLIVEN

The GMA campaign wagon gears up
(Dec. 16, 2003)

THE President can’t pretend her flying visit to oil-rich Bahrain via Hong Kong wasn’t political. Aside from meeting with the small Filipino community of 25,000 in Manama, which is the capital of this immensely wealthy but small nation of 650,000 inhabitants, she’s bringing home today a $1-million “grant” from the King of Bahrain, Sheikh Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, for the Muslims of the Philippines.

The government propaganda machine announced the other day that “many” of the 900,000 Filipinos working in next-door Saudi Arabia might come pouring in, as well, to greet the President. For those working in nearby Saudi ARAMCO, just across the King Fahd Causeway, this might be feasible, but most of the Pinoys and Pinays in Saudi work in the Riyadh and Jeddah areas, which are many hours away across the burning desert, or by air. Since she brought along her close friend Nick Alcantara, whom she anointed Chairman of Petron (half-owned by Saudi ARAMCO) immediately after she assumed the Presidency, we can suppose Nick bussed in a hefty delegation from among the thousands of Filipinos – including doctors, nurses, engineers and rig workers – employed in Dhahran, which is in the Eastern Provinces of the vast Saudi expanse, right across from Bahrain.

Perhaps, through Nick and Saudi ARAMCO management, substantial “campaign” . . . er contribution, might have been handed to President GMA on the occasion of her triumphant two-day Bahrain state visit. (She returns here at 8 a.m. today – so it was a flying visit, indeed.)

Saudi ARAMCO, after all, produces virtually all of Saudi Arabia’s petroleum output, more than any other oil company in the world (up to 10 million barrels a day), and in the Kingdom’s biggest employer outside of the government.

It’s possible, aside from the “goodies” President GMA is getting from Bahrain’s Sheik Hamad (also oozing with petro-dollars and petro-euros, since oil was discovered there in 1932), the Saudi ARAMCO “fund” will help swell La Gloria’s “assistance” (or campaign?) kitty.

Special report on oil spill

September 5, 2006

REPORTER’S NOTEBOOK by Carlo Lorenzo
Aug. 22, 2006 (Please wait a few seconds for the dowloading. Tnx!)

(Click Reporter’s Notebook for the rest of the video.)

Setbacks in Guimaras clean-up drive

September 5, 2006

THE SOUTHERN BEAT By Rolly Espina

IT was a shocker and it must have set back the authorities’ plan to remove the oil debris from Guimaras using barges.

The problem started when the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) in Guimaras discovered that the licenses of the two officers of the tugboats that will tow the barges from Guimaras were fake.

“They admitted that they were procured from Claro M. Recto Avenue in Manila, the source of many fake documents, including scholastic records and official documents,” said a PCG officer.

This only reinforced the suspicion that Petron Corp. did not conduct due diligence in contracting the ill-fated MT Solar I of the Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC).

This was not the only setback though to the clean-up drive.

Nueva Valencia police confiscated on Saturday several sprayers and generators used by Petron that were not cleared for use in the cleanup drive.

Local authorities said they had suspected that something was wrong when they noticed that the spraying was done at night. One of the tugboats’ officers, Eddie Ededap, sheepishly admitted during interrogation that their licenses were bought from a Recto document-maker.

(Click Southern Beat for the rest of the column.)

Teddyboy to Guimarasnons: Sue Petron now

September 5, 2006

•Embarrassing if WV doesn’t take legal action, says solon

By HAZEL P. VILLA
and RYAN B. LACHICA

ILOILO City – It would be truly embarrassing if the local governments of Western Visayas (WV) don’t take legal actions against those responsible for the Philippines’ worst oil spill, said Cong. Teddy Boy Locsin (Makati)yesterday.

“The leaders in the areas affected by the oil spill should at least do (take legal action) so by now. The legal action should be at the same speed in which the impeachment proceeding against the President was referred to the committee,” said Locsin in a telephone interview. Locsin is a lawyer by training.

Meanwhile, local government units in Negros Occidental have been directed to submit a report on expenses incurred in preparation for the possible reaching of the Guimaras oil spill in their territorial waters.

In issuing the directive, the provincial government said it wants to make sure that the P5 million released by the Office of the Civil Defense for the purpose would be fairly shared by the local governments.

Provinces composing Western Visayas are Guimaras, Iloilo, Aklan, Antique, Capiz and Negros Occidental – with the waters of Iloilo and Negros under direct threat of being further polluted by the bunker fuel oil that leaked out of oil tanker MT Solar 1 that sank in southern Guimaras on August 11.

Locsin said it is the duty of the mayors, governors and congressmen of WV to take or call for legal actions against those responsible for the oil spill considering that Petron Corp. is denying its legal liability for the spill.

The congressman said he advised Guimaras Gov. JC Rahman Nava to sue oil refiner Petron Corp. for negligence.

Although that threat of the oil spill seems to have remained just that, the Provincial Government of Negros Occidental is not taking chances.

Gov. Joseph Marañon said local governments would be given funds “according to their needs.”

As this developed, the coconut husks that the provincial government ordered from Dumaguete City had arrived and is being distributed to coastal towns; coconut husk can be used in making spill booms.

(Click Panay News, Sept. 5, 2006, for the rest of the pieces.)

Guimaras – the Emerald Isle

September 5, 2006

Anything Under the Sun

By Atty. Rex S. Salvill

THE vicinity of the tragedy itself is a rich fishing ground of the province which supplies food not only for the island but also for Iloilo City. It is also a virtual aquarium full of coral reefs — habitat of many indigenous exotic marine creatures like decorative fishes, sharks (bagis), manta rays (pagi), octopus (kogita), lobster (banagan), deep sea crabs (kasag), rare delicious sea shell (imbao) and rare red shrimp (pasayan nga pula). As of this writing, already 15.8 square kilometers of coral reefs are already affected in Nueva Valencia alone.

The coral reefs must really be very abundant considering that it was here where the coral stones of the entire Molo church were extracted a hundred years ago. This could have been the reason why the people of Nueva Valencia adopted Santa Ana — the patron saint of Molo, as also their patron saint.

The situs of the 1,100-hectare Taklong Island Marine Reserve of the University of Philippines in the Visayas which conducts scientific experiments on marine life is also here. The first Mariculture Park of the Southeast Asia Fisheries Development Center (SEAFDEC) was likewise situated here. These two are already reached by the oil spill thus diminishing their scientific values.

There is great fear that the oil spill will spread to the two richest fishing grounds of the country itself – Visayan Sea to the north and Sulu Sea to the east.

The northern waters of Guimaras is an arm of the Visayan Sea. This vast expanse of water borders on Panay, Negros, Cebu, Masbate and Bohol. It is so rich a fishing ground that it once made Estancia (a northern town of Iloilo) as “Alaska of the Philippines”. Its main produce are salmon (guma-a when dried), sardines (tabagak when dried) and squids. These three were canned in Estancia before the war by the government-owned National Canning Factory.

Once the oil spill rush northward on Guimaras Strait, it will cause destructions along its way on the western beaches of Negros Occidental where green shells (in Talisay and Silay) and angel wings shell – the delicious diwal, in Valladolid, Pulupandan and Pontevedra), both abound.

The oil spill will then continue northward laying waste the eastern beaches of Guimaras and Iloilo where most of the fishponds of Iloilo are located (Zarraga, Barotac Nuevo, Dumangas, Ajuy, Concepcion and Balasan). These fishponds produce the most delicious milkfish (bangus) in the country due to its peculiar soil mix created by various kinds of silts from mangroves and flooding rivers. As of this writing, the oil spill has already reached the coastal barangays of Ajuy and Concepcion.

On the other hand, should the oil spill rush southeastward, it will flow into the Sulu Sea which makes Antique the tuna (panit) center of the Philippines next to General Santos. Along the way, it will also damage the beaches in southern Iloilo, western Antique and perhaps, may eventually reach the internationally-famous Boracay in Aklan.

The oil spill will also kill marine animal life on the coastal municipal waters including those inside fish pens (punot) thus depriving thousands of fishermen of their livelihood. As of this writing, in Nueva Valencia alone, more than 4,000 fishermen are already jobless.

The bangus industry aside from being destroyed directly will also be indirectly affected because of the killing of bangus fries in the coasts of Antique – the main source of these fries.

(Click Emerald for the rest of the piece.)