Confusion, racketeers hamper oil spill claims

By Francis Allan L. Angelo
The Guardian, Sept. 20, 2006

CONFUSION and insurance racketeers are among the problems hampering the processing of claims by Guimaras residents whose livelihoods and properties were damaged by the worst oil spill in the country.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) personnel assisting in the damage claims procedure said they have to educate Guimaras residents, particularly the fisherfolks, on how to get monetary reparations from the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF).

Rhodora Capulso, chief of the DENR Regional Public Affairs Office, said the claimants have yet to grasp the details of the IOPCF procedure, especially the required supporting documents.

The IOPCF is a worldwide intergovernmental organization that provides compensation for oil pollution damages.

“Some of them cannot understand… They simply do not know what to do. We have to conduct house-to-house campaigns just to help them with their claims,” Capulso said.

Although they have conducted a seminar for the affected residents, Capulso said one session is not enough to make them comprehend the whole claims procedures.

Capulso said they will translate the IOPCF Claims Manual to Ilonggo to help Guimarasnons fully understand how their claims will be submitted.

The 1992 Fund Claims Manual states that compensation is payable for the costs of reasonable measures taken to combat oil at sea, protection of resources vulnerable to oil such as sensitive coastal habitats, seawater intakes of industrial plants, mariculture facilities and others.

The fund also covers shoreline cleanup and coastal installations and disposal of collected oil and oily wastes.

Compensation is also paid for the cost of mobilizing cleanup equipment and salvage resources for the purpose of preventive measures.

The IOPCF has made available some US$300 million for the damage claims.

Capulso also warned Guimaras residents of certain groups offering their help in the processing of their claims.

“All claims must be coursed through the provincial government. The IOPCF will only honor claims that were accomplished using the official form it has provided the capitol. They should be careful as other individuals might take advantage of the situation and partake of their claims,” Capulso said.

Another problem is how the IOPCF will pay the validated claimants.

“Will they issue checks or pay in cash? If they will pay cash, then that would be a major security concern for IOPCF personnel. If checks will be given out, some of the claimants might have problems in the encashment. Maybe they can set up a bank account for the claimants,” Capulso said.

Capulso and Damaso Fuentes, chief of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Division, also conducted a seminar of sorts for media practitioners to help disseminate information on the processing of claims.

(For more news about Western Visayas, click The Guardian.)

Tree barks can help solve oil spills

By Rudy A. Fernandez
The Philippine Star 09/05/2006

A TREE bark-based industry to help counter the country’s increasing problem of oil spills?

Why not?

A tree bark is a good material for absorbing pollutants, including oil spills in marine waters, according to the Los Baños, Laguna-based Department of Science and Technology-Forest Products Research and Development Institute (DOST-FPRDI).

In other countries, particularly the developed ones in Asia, North America and Europe, tree barks are being used to absorb liquid pollutants, Dr. Florence Soriano, FPRDI director, told The STAR.

“The Philippines produces a lot of waste barks because we have about 653,000 hectares of industrial tree plantations established by both the government and private groups,” said FPRDI chemist Jennifer Tamayo.

She said the bark makes up 10 to 20 percent of a trunk’s total volume and regarded as waste in industrial tree plantations.

What is needed, according to Tamayo, is the technology to harvest barks without harming the trees or to gather barks from trees felled for commercial use.

Tamayo, who holds a Master of Science in chemistry education from the University of the Philippines Los Baños, has studied the potential of tree barks in cleaning water polluted with toxic metals.

Under the guidance of Dr. Maxima Flavier of UPLB, Tamayo looked into the potential of the barks of eight tree species to trap ions (atoms) of lead and chromium in the wastewater of a steel galvanizing plant.

Lead causes kidney and liver cancer, while chromium triggers biological mutations.

The species were raintree (acacia or Samania saman), mangium (Acacia mangium), bagras (Eucalyptus deglupta), river red gum (Eucalyptus camaldulensis), moluccan sau (Paraserienthes falcataria), gubas (Endospermum peltatum), kaatoan bangkal (Anthocephalus chinensis), and yemane (Gmelina arborea).

Gubas and river red gum showed the best results since their barks removed the most ions and did not impart color in a solution, Tamayo said.

“Barks of these species can be used for wastewater treatment in process industries,” she added.

Tamayo said barks have tannins, lignins, organic acids and cellulose that can absorb or trap heavy metals in a solution.

“They have the potential to substitute for costly synthetic adsorbents presently imported by the wastewater treatment industry at (a cost of) about $8 million a year,” she said.

The experiment showed that barks could remove 96 to 100 percent lead and 84 to 90 percent chromium from wastewater.

Soriano said, “This technology, once adopted, could help make industries better able to comply with present and future environmental laws.”

And a good tool in controlling oil spills, too.

Guimaras housing loans ordered released

VICE PRESIDENT Noli de Castro on Wednesday ordered the Pag-ibig Fund to expedite the release of calamity loans to its members in Guimaras Island affected by the recent oil spill.

“This is one way of alleviating the plight of our members, especially from the five affected municipalities of Guimaras – Jordan, Nueva Valencia, San Lorenzo, Sibunag and Buena Vista – who have lost their livelihood,” said De Castro, chair of the Pag-ibig Fund Board of Trustees.

Lawyer Romero Quimbo, the Fund’s president and CEO, reported that since August 28, 2006, the agency has released a total of 15.51 million pesos in calamity loans, covering 1,173 applications.

He also announced that Pag-ibig officers have gone directly to the calamity-stricken areas to personally give the loan applications to affected members. Members would ordinarily need to travel to Iloilo City to avail of their loans. “That won’t be necessary anymore since even the releasing of checks will be done in Guimaras itself,” he added.

Under the Fund’s Calamity Loan program, a qualified member whose place of residence has been declared under a state of calamity can borrow up to 80 percent of his total savings.

From January to July 2006, the Pag-ibig Fund has released 453.88 million pesos in calamity loans benefiting 26,547 member-borrowers across the country. Guimaras Island has a membership base of 2,581 members.

(Published on INQ7.net, Sept. 20, 2006.)

DOH’s Guimaras report questioned

LAWMAKERS yesterday questioned the accuracy of the Department of Health’s report regarding the excessively high levels of hydrogen sulfide gas found in three Guimaras villages affected by the Aug. 11 oil spill.

Akbayan Rep. Loretta Ann Rosales, a member of the House ecology committee, said Congress will look into the veracity of the findings made by the DoH and University of the Philippines National Poison Management and Control Center that hydrogen sulfide concentrations ranged between 537.9 to 2,145 parts per million (ppm) in Barangay Cabalagnan and 13.2 to 165 ppm in La Paz. The village of Tando was also affected but the H2S level in the area was not declared.

The toxicity profile of hydrogen sulfide assigns “immediate danger to life and health limit” at 100 ppm while exposure to above 800 ppm levels is considered “lethal” within five minutes.

Rosales said the figures released by the DOH, if accurate, could kill the residents of the three barangays within a very short period.

“It raises the question of credibility on the part of the DOH in evaluating the measurement. Therefore, it must be reviewed by the experts because the department cannot be that irresponsible. It should be investigated and asked during the budget hearings. It will only cause more panic rather than solution,” she pointed out. “Nakakatawa tuloy tayo sa mata ng ibang bansa kung ganyan ng ganyan ang mangyayari.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Resurreccion Sadaba, head of the UP Visayas Division of Biological Sciences, yesterday said all efforts to clean up the oil spill will remain “futile” as long as the sunken oil tanker remains underwater.

(For the full story, click Guimaras report, Sept. 21, 2006.)

The impact of the Guimaras oil spill

SOMETIMES, we tend to scheme over the impact of a disaster on our resources and how they affect people. Very often, it ends up as a game of numbers. Which ends up just that – statistics which are impersonal.

But yesterday, the Regional Development Council came up with the report that Guimaras fishermen are being discouraged from going out to catch fish. Most fishermen take in from one to five kilos of aquatic resources daily. Not much to go on if one considers the daily needs of ordinary folk. And many of them are now earning P300 per day after being hired by Petron to join the clean-up drive.

Several complained that they were earning as much as P1,500 daily. And they complained that what Petron is giving them is not enough for them to live by daily. And they want more.

But that’s not the point. Now, they have to buy fish from Iloilo at P90 per kilo. That certainly makes a big dent on their pocket books. I just wonder what the provincial government has been doing to alleviate their daily crisis. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reportedly told the National Disaster Coordinating Council to ban fishermen from catching fish not because they are dangerous to eat but to allow the fish population to recover from the impact of the oil spill.

But the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources reported that the spill temporarily paralyzed fishing activities, resulting to loss of income and reduction in the average fishcatch of fishers.

(For the rest of the piece, click Visayan Daily Star, Sept. 20, 2006.)

Petron collects 500 MT debris from Guimaras

PETRON Corp., the country’s largest oil refinery, said Wednesday that it has shipped out some 500 metric tons (MT) of oil-covered debris as part of its clean-up operations in Guimaras.

In a press statement, Petron said a Landing Craft Tanker (LCT) with a capacity of 2,000 metric tons left the Cabalagnan Wharf in Nueva Valencia after lunch on Wednesday.

The LCT will bring the debris to Holcim Philippines ’ Lugait plant in Misamis Oriental where it will be used as an alternative fuel and raw material in cement production without compromising the quality of cement.

The oil firm noted that the high technology plant will convert the oil-covered debris into energy without producing any hazardous compounds or fumes.

Petron said Holcim has had experience in handling, storing and co-processing of similar materials locally and globally.

(For the entire ‘praise release’, click GMA News TV, Sept. 20, 2006.)

100 years needed for a 10th of RP corals to recover

By Blanche Rivera
Inquirer

IT will take a hundred years to replenish a tenth of the country’s damaged coral reefs, according to a marine scientist specializing on coral reef ecology.

At the rate the Philippines is establishing marine protected areas (MPA), which facilitate the rehabilitation of coral reefs, it could take up to 2101 to manage 10 percent of the country’s reef areas, said Porfirio Aliño, coordinator of the MPA Support Network in the Philippines.

The Philippines, dubbed as the center of marine biodiversity in the world, has 17,000 sq km of coral reefs. According to a World Bank report, only five percent of the reefs are in excellent condition while the rest are either threatened or critical.

“Based on the trend in the establishment of MPAs, it could take up to 2101 to effectively manage the reefs. Of course, if people suddenly put up more marine sanctuaries, it could be sooner than that [2101],” Aliño said in an interview.

He noted an increasing number of MPAs as awareness was raised among fishing-dependent communities and local government units. From some 50 MPAs in the 1970s, the number rose to 200 in the 1980s and around 500 today.

Conservationists have branded the MPAs as mere paper parks, but according to Aliño, there has been an absolute improvement, with about 30 percent of the MPAs now managed and regularly patrolled.

(For the full story, click 100 years, Sept. 20, 2006.)

Helping hands…Cebu furniture firms donate sawdust

As part of its corporate social responsibility, the member companies of the Cebu Furniture Industries Foundation Inc. (CFIF), through its Sugbu Tabang Guimaras project, donated more than five truckloads of sawdust for the ongoing cleanup operations in Guimaras Island.

Aside from the sawdust, drums, masks and jute sacks were also donated by the said member-companies, which include Global Classic Designs Inc., Giadrini Del Sole Mftg. and Trading Corp., Casa Cebuana Inc. and PEBA Trading, Cebu Natura Craft, Diamond Care, Stonesets Int’l. Inc., D & D Export and Maitland Smith.

The M/T Solar I carrying two million liters of bunker fuel sunk off Guimaras Island on August 11, resulting to the oil spill and the damage of about 220 kilometers of Guimaras coastline, including 450 hectares of mangroves and 116 hectares of seaweed plantations.

(From the Cebu Daily News, Sept. 20, 2006.)

Alternative jobs needed for oil spill victims

By VG Cabuag
Reporter, Business Mirror
Sept. 20, 2006

INSTEAD of providing temporary assistance to victims of the Guimaras oil spill, the Philippine government and companies responsible for the incident, such as the state-controlled Petron Corp., should give them alternative livelihoods, a nonprofit group said.

Despite immediately providing relief goods and Petron’s offers of a cash-for-work program, sourcing the community’s food supply needs has remained a problem, the Citizens’ Disaster Response Center (CDRC) said in a report.

“What the affected communities need is a program that would make certain they have an alternative livelihood, while the rehabilitation of the damaged ecosystem continues and the effects of the disaster remain felt,” the group said.

The CDRC alleged that a program implemented by Petron which paid villagers P300 a day for helping in the spill’s cleanup was riddled with corruption and further exposed the workers to health hazards.

“The project of Petron… did not resolve the people’s economic problems as it only employed a very small number of individuals who had to earn a measly amount for a week’s work, at the expense of their health,” the group said.

During its discussions with the fishermen in barangays Tando and Guiwanon, two of the most affected areas in Guimaras, the community suggested various alternative livelihoods from livestock-raising and vegetable farming to vending.

“Others were still looking into the possibility of fishing out into the sea. That is what they know best,” the report said.

Majority of Guimaras residents consider fishing as their main livelihood, although some go into farming to supplement their incomes.

Quoting government figures, the group said that 7,676 families—or an estimated 38,024 individuals, most of them fishermen—were affected by the oil spill.

Moreover, the group said that even if the community turns to livestock-raising and vegetable farming, another concern would be the animal feeds and the lack of farm lands, since the area is an island.

“Although alternative livelihoods might answer for their economic woes for a while, the main focus should be on how to deliver them from their vulnerability to disasters,” it said.

Last week, the body investigating the oil spill concluded that all of the parties involved, including government agencies, made lapses and were liable for the disaster.

The Special Board of Marine Inquiry said the captain of the sunken ship Solar 1 was responsible for the lack of adequate training for oil tankers. The same body also held Sunshine Maritime Corp., the owner of the vessel, liable for completely disregarding regulations; Petron for overloading the vessel with industrial oil; and both Maritime Industry Authority and the Philippine Coast Guard for lapses in the performance of their mandated duties.

From our mailbox…Ever heard of the the Dirty Three?

THE chances are that you have not. Petron, Caltex and Shell are the three major oil companies in the Philippines that effectively form a price fixing cartel. However, what is generally unknown, is that these three oil companies sell some of the worlds dirtiest (in terms of sulfur content) #6 residual fuel oil (bunker oil) for use in the Philippine Islands. Number 6 residual fuel oil sold in the Philippines has a 2.8% by weight sulfur content. In addition to this, the three companies do not offer the option of a low sulfur content number 6 oil for sale in the Philippines. If this was not bad enough, all three companies refuse to divulge the fuel borne nitrogen content of their number 6 fuel oil.

(Click Dirty Three for the entire piece. Link provided by Bernhard Willig.)

IOPC offers to offload tanker’s oil; Iggy pushes Belgian firm for oil siphoning

By Ronilo Pamonag
The Philippine Star 09/20/2006

ILOILO CITY — An international group of oil refiners has offered to facilitate the offloading of the remaining oil from the sunken tanker Solar I, Guimaras Gov. JC Rahman Nava said yesterday.

Nava said the International Oil Pollution Compensation (IOPC) had offered to hire the services of a company that could siphon off oil from Solar I. “They know what is to be done,” Nava said of IOPC. He said IOPC will shoulder the expenses for the undertaking.

The Sunstar Bacolod also reported Monday that another foreign company with expertise in oil siphoning is committed to help the Philippine Government in case it decide to siphon the remaining bunker fuel from m/t Solar I that is still lying at the belly of Guimaras sea.

This is the Core Air Company in Brussels, Belgium, said Rep. Ignacio “Iggy” Arroyo of the 5th District of Negros Occidental, who is still in Brussels for an official business transaction. Arroyo is brother of First Gentleman Mike Arroyo.

The solon said he was delighted with the commitment of Core Air officials.

Petron Corp., which chartered the ill-fated tanker to transport two million liters of oil to Zamboanga, is a member of IOPC. Solar I sank off Guimaras on Aug. 11.

“It’s a welcome development, but we don’t have much choice,” Gov. Nava said. “At least I’m thankful that we have IOPC which has committed to siphon the oil.”

He said it would take about six weeks to set up the necessary equipment.

Nava said siphoning of the oil is the “first attempt” at dealing with the country’s worst oil spill, which has affected coastal communities in the provinces of Guimaras, Iloilo and Negros Occidental.

Philippine Coast Guard “on scene” commander Harold Jarder said offloading the oil from a sunken tanker is complex and delicate work. But he stressed the hardest part is the deployment and setting up of equipment and not the actual siphoning in which powerful pumps are used.

Either this week or next, a team of experts is due to arrive in Guimaras to assess the situation in preparation for the offloading, Nava said.

The tanker is 600 meters underwater, about 16 nautical miles off the southern coast of Guimaras. It is still leaking oil, but not as much as in the first weeks of the tragedy, the PCG observed.

Health problems rising

In a related development, cases of oil spill-related health problems continue to rise.

As of yesterday, there were 1,724 people diagnosed with signs and symptoms of illnesses related to the oil spill, according to a status report by Task Force Solar I Oil Spill (SOS).

On Sept. 12, the number of sick people was placed at 1,414 from 985 on Sept. 8; 677 on Sept. 5; and 329 on Aug. 25.

The majority of those affected, at 1,645, are from Guimaras and the rest are from Iloilo.

The regional office of the Department of Health, however, clarified that the increase in the number may also be due to the fact that an affected person may exhibit two or more symptoms.

“Signs and symptoms of respiratory illness remained to be the main common conditions reported during the consultations, which is 57.93 percent out of 1,645 cumulative total of signs and symptoms,” the status report stated. (with Sunstar Bacolod)

Gov’t banking on oil pollution fund to pay Guimaras folk

By Hazel P. Villa, Nestor P. Burgos Jr.
Inquirer

ILOILO CITY – The government is banking on the London-based International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPC) to pay Guimaras residents affected by the Visayas oil spill, especially those who have fallen sick because of toxic fumes from the bunker fuel leaked by the M/T Solar I after it sank August 11.

“The victims of the oil spill are supposed to be covered by the IOPC. The local government units know how to present their claims,” said Glenn Rabonza, executive officer of the National Disaster Coordinating Council in a telephone interview Monday afternoon.

Meanwhile, medical tests showed that at least three residents of Barangay Tando, one of the worst hit by the oil spill, had altered hemoglobin, which makes the blood unable to carry oxygen.

Persons with this condition experience shortness of breath and headaches and could even die.

The processing for compensation began Tuesday for people “sick or not sick as long as they are affected,” said Nueva Valencia Mayor Diosdado Gonzaga in a telephone interview.

(For the full story, click Pollution fund, Sept. 19, 2006.)

Post Guimaras, modernize merchant fleet

BIG DEAL
By Dan Mariano, Manila Times
Sept. 20, 2006

The special board of Marine inquiry has just wrapped up its investigation into the August 11 sinking of the M/T Solar 1 in the Guimaras Strait. Now come sightings of an “oil sheen” off the island-province of Marinduque.

The Coast Guard, as of this writing, is still looking into reports that an undetermined amount of oil was discharged by two vessels that had collided near the coast of Boac.

Whatever comes out of the Coast Guard’s probe, one thing remains clear: our waters are under constant threat from vessels that should never have been allowed to set sail in the first place.

Even in the board’s inquiry into the Solar 1 sinking, a ranking member of the board pointed out that establishing the culpability of the parties involved in the disaster offers only a partial solution.

The board has found the oil tanker’s master, Norberto Aguro; the vessel’s owner, Sunshine Maritime Development Corp.; and Petron Corp., which chartered Solar 1, liable for the incident that resulted in the worst oil spill—thus far—in the country’s history.

Some 500,000 liters of bunker oil leaked out of the sunken tanker contaminating the surrounding waters, disrupting the livelihood of 40,000 islanders and despoiling 220 km of coastline in Guimaras and nearby islands.

(For the rest of the piece, click Dan Mariano.)

More of Petron’s cheapstakes…

Expired licenses halt exodus of collected oil from Guimaras
GMA News TV

PHILIPPINE Coast Guard personnel on Tuesday prevented a barge loaded with collected oil sludge from leaving Guimaras Island in central Philippines after finding that the crewmembers’ licenses were already expired.

The licenses belonged to Engineer Rolex Carbo and chief mate Benny Abong, who both operated the tugboat used to tow the MV Carmen from the nearby port.

The MV Carmen, which was already loaded with 500 metric tons of thick debris, was supposed to transport the oil to a cement factory in Misamis Oriental.

Worse, Coast Guard authorities also found that the tugboat was underpowered.

Carlos Tan, health safety and environment manager of Petron Corp., said he has requested the tugboat owner to install a more powerful engine.

“We were expecting the MV Carmen to leave soon with the cargo to Misamis Oriental, where a cement company plans to use the sludge for manufacturing cement,” Tan said.

(For the full story, click Expired licenses, Sept. 20, 2006.)

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LAST time Petron hired a tugboat operator, its officers had fake licenses…the kind you buy from Recto? Now the issue is expired licenses. What’s up with Petron’s local officials? Too cheap to hire credible tugboat operators? Anobayan!