Petron cover-up?

IT seems that with the waning of national media coverage of the Guimaras oil spill from the sinking of MT Solar 1, Petron’s interest and ardor for the clean-up of the oil sludge washed upon Guimaras province’s former pristine beaches and mangrove forests have also greatly diminished.

This is lamentable since it is indisputable that Petron has the responsibility to clean up the mess created by the spill. For one, MT Solar 1 was carrying Petron’s bunker fuel bound for Zamboanga from its refinery in Bataan and also the Special Board of Marine Inquiry investigating the Solar 1 sinking has identified Petron as one of those responsible for the accident for allowing the overloading of Solar 1.

Petron has of course disputed the findings of the Board of Marine Inquiry about the overloading but it cannot escape responsibility for the cleanup and for compensating the fishermen and other Guimaras residents, whose livelihood had been adversely affected by the Solar 1/Petron oil spill.

It’s good that local media have remained vigilant in reporting Petron’s sins of commission and omission in the aftermath of the oil spill which is the worst in Philippine history and which no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo herself has proclaimed as a national disaster.

One of the more galling stories about Petron’s “clean-up” effort is the one reported by David Israel Sinay in the Sept. 19 issue of Panay News, where he detailed the accusations of the head teacher of an elementary school in Barangay Tando, Nueva Valencia against Petron. Barangay Tando is one of the areas worst hit by the oil spill.

(For the full story, click Mla. Standard Today, Sept. 29, 2006.)

UP to form legal, economic team on Guimaras

INQ7.net, Sept. 28, 2006

THE University of the Philippines is forming a team of legal and economic experts to determine liability for the Guimaras oil spill and what legal action the university could take.

Marvic Leonen, the UP vice president for legal affairs, said the team would be drawn from the UP system, particularly UP Diliman and UP Visayas, and would include valuation experts to compute the damage.

“We’ve been affected twice, the Semirara and Guimaras spills … We have marine reserves that are used for research,” Leonen told a forum on the legal aspects of the oil spill in UP Diliman.

He did not reveal who the team members were nor the charges being readied in connection with the Guimaras spill.

A rapid assessment report completed by the Silliman University on August 30, 19 days after the spill, placed the potential annual losses from fishery products because of damage to mangroves at 30 million pesos, and from loss of wood products at 1.6 million pesos.

The UP Visayas will come out with its three-month rapid assessment report in November. The school maintains the official information database on the spill. It has obtained a 100-million-peso, 10-year grant to help in the rehabilitation of Guimaras.

Chemical dispersant used in Guimaras oil spill more harmful—DOST

By Helen Flores
The Philippines Star, Sept. 27, 2006

THE Department of Science and Technology (DOST) confirmed yesterday that the chemical dispersants used in containing the Guimaras oil spill may cause more harm to the already distressed area.

“Dun sa katanungan na ang chemical dispersants na ito ay mas toxic, actually totoo ’yun (It’s actually true that the chemical dispersants are toxic),” Dr. Jaime Montoya, executive director of the Philippine Council for Health Research and Development (PCHRD), of the DOST, said during a press conference at the Hotel Kimberly in Malate, Manila.

Montoya made the statement in reaction to a scientific study conducted by Silliman University, which cautioned against the use of chemical oil dispersants in cleaning the oil spill.

Reports said that the research team found that “the effects of dispersants on living organisms are worse that the actual effects of the oil spill.”

Montoya, however, said that the agencies concerned in containing the oil spill should weigh the risk and benefit of using chemical dispersants.

The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) used chemical dispersants to clean up the oil spill in Guimaras.

“Lahat ng ginagawa natin sa siyensya at medicina laging may harm yan, sa gamot may side effects pero kailangan mo laging isipin na dapat yun benepisyo na gusto mong makuha should outweigh the risk or the harm (All we do in the field of science and medicine has some harm, medicines have side effects, but you have to think that the benefits you desire should outweigh the risk or harm),” he stressed

He said the issue of using the chemical dispersants is now being debated upon.

“Does it actually outweigh the potential harm to the ecological environment?” Montoya said, adding that these chemicals would eventually reach shore and the people who would be exposed to them.

Montoya added that there are no really “global experts” in this case because it is rarely happening in any country.

He said the experiences of other countries in handling oil spills are the government’s basis of response.

He also said that there are other ways of treating the oil spill, like the use of coconut and corn husks as oil absorbents.

“Maraming substitutes, dapat alamin kung anong pinakamaganda ’yun ang dapat asikasuhin, importante dito maaddress natin ’yun problema taking into consideration not only the actual oil spill itself but its acute and long-term effect in the environment and the population,” he said.

The M/T Solar I, carrying more than two million liters of bunker fuel, sank off Guimaras waters on Aug. 11 causing the country’s worst-ever oil spill.

Proposals for Solar 1 siphoning operations evaluated

The Philippine Star 09/29/2006

PROPOSALS for siphoning the remaining oil in Solar I from salvage contractors are now being evaluated, an official of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, 1992 (1992 Fund) said yesterday.

Joe Nichols, deputy director of the 1992 Fund, said Shipowners’ P&I Club and 1992 Fund were evaluating the proposals.

The 1992 Fund, an intergovernmental organization based in London, and Shipowners’ P&I Club, the third party insurers of Solar I, will be the ones to provide compensation for oil pollution damage within the framework of two international conventions.

The conventions cover damages resulting from spills of persistent oil from tankers.

The final decision on whether the cost of siphoning the oil from the sunken tanker is covered by the conventions would be made by the 1992 Fund’s executive committee, which meets on the week of Oct. 23.

This was confirmed by Guimaras oil spill incident commander Rafael Coscolluela. He said that once the 1992 Fund has contracted a salvaging company for the operations, it would also take about four to six weeks to deploy offloading vessels and equipment. Another two months would lapse before all the remaining bunker oil is sucked out of Solar I.

“We cannot rush the offloading. We have to plan and prepare, and take the proper precautions. Safety and reduced risk is important,” he said.

According to the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) commander for Western Visayas, Capt. Luis Tuason, there are only four companies capable of offloading the oil. He, however, declined to name these foreign companies.

Meanwhile, the Shipowners’ P&I Club is pressing ahead with the necessary preparation for a siphoning operation to minimize delay, pending a decision by the executive committee.

“The siphoning of oil from a tanker 630 meters underwater is a very complex operation and requires very detailed planning. With the vessel’s proximity to sensitive environmental resources, we have to be very careful to ensure that any siphoning operations do not cause further damage,” Nichols said in a statement.

The PCG is also doing its own preparation for the offloading operations. Tuason said they will be laying out ocean spill booms in case the offloading operations go awry and oil is released into the waters.

“The only enemy (of offloading operations) is the weather and the strong current,” Tuason said.

In a presentation to the National Disaster Coordinating Council earlier this month, based on the report from the survey vessel Shinsei Maru, the 1992 Fund said that Solar I was deeply embedded in mud on the seabed and was therefore in stable condition. As such, there was little likelihood of a major release of oil in the short term.

Representatives of the Shipowners P&I Club and the 1992 Fund have also conducted oil pollution claims and compensation workshops in Guimaras aimed at assisting victims of the incident to process claims. — Ronilo Pamonag

Task Force Special

By Tara Katherine Yap in Guimaras

NO ONE saw it coming—that a tanker, carrying over two million liters of bunker fuel, would sink, much more cause environmental, health, and socio-economic hazards that have never been seen in this country before.

The government was caught off-guard. As a result, the management of the oil spill disaster in Guimaras and its neighboring areas has been marked by confusion. It is unclear who really calls the shots as there are too many officials and agencies involved and they operate in a multi-layered organization, including three task forces: Task Force Guimaras (national), Task Force Solar 1 Oil Spill (regional), and Task Force Sunrise (provincial).

The response to Guimaras is similar to the evacuation of Filipinos in Lebanon. Instead of tapping an existing and tested inter-agency crisis management committee, President Arroyo formed a task force headed by the vice president which worked separately from a presidential committee on Middle East preparedness and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

The emergencies in Guimaras and Lebanon reflect the leadership style of Ms. Arroyo. Journalists who have covered her say that the President usually forms special bodies to deal with emergencies to show that the national government is responding. The message, they say, is the creation of the task force itself.

During the first week, only the municipality of Nueva Valencia, under Mayor Diosdado Gonzaga, and the regional Coast Guard responded. They handled the rescue operation of the crew of the ill-fated M/T Solar 1 and notified the concerned private and government agencies.

(For the full story, click Newsbreak October 9, 2006 issue online.)