JUST in case the Petron slackers are, well, still slacking, they should be informed that the Philippine Stock Exchange lists on its web site, the names of the shareholders of Holcim, the company which Petron paid to take the oil debris out of Guimaras.
And guess who sits on the board of Holcim? Tommy Alcantara, brother of Petron chairman Nick Alcantara.
Click shareholders’ list and find out why Petron’s deal with Holcim smacks of impropriety. Tsk, tsk, tsk
By Nestor P. Burgos Jr.
Inquirer, Oct. 18, 2006
NUEVA VALENCIA, Guimaras – Residents hired by Petron Corp. to clean the oil sludge from the sunken tanker Solar I said they have been instructed by employees of the oil firm to cover up signs of the oil sludge from the inspection teams and visitors.
“They tell us to cover the oil-stained stones and rocks with sand when there are visitors coming,” a 54-year-old resident of the village of Tando told the Inquirer. He asked not to be identified for fear of losing his work in the clean-up operations.
However, Petron spokesperson Carlos Tan denied the allegations.
“I don’t know where this is coming from. It makes no sense for us to do that because if anyone would say that there’s still bunker fuel in a particular area, we would be forced to return and clean it again,” Tan told the Inquirer in a telephone interview.
He said even if they have declared an area cleared of oil debris, the government’s multi-agency inspection teams would give the final assessment.
The resident said the instructions came from Petron employees acting as team leaders in the clean up groups and are in charge of disbursing the payroll.
(For the full story, click Petron cover-up.)
By LITO BANAYO
Malaya, Oct. 19, 2006
SPEAKING of short attention span, people and media have forgotten about the atrocious oil spill off Guimaras. There’s even a foreign “expert” from International Oil Pollution Commission, a certain Joe Nichols, who had gall enough to chide Panay media for “always looking for a negative story” in reporting about the unending tragedy that is Guimaras. And cheek enough to tell them about the heroic efforts of Petron, “even if it is also the victim here”.
And yet, if media reports the good news and forgets the ugly realities, would the short lady and her appointees in Petron’s board even bother to act on the sad fate of a paradise spoiled? As it is, they are banking on Filipino’s “short” memories.
(For the rest of the piece, click Lito Banayo.)
MAYORS of the coastal towns and cities of Negros Occidental threatened by the MT Solar 1 oil spill off the coast of Guimaras yesterday agreed to lodge a collective claim before the International Oil Pollution Compensation Funds.
The mayors of Negros Occidental, as well as Bacolod Mayor Evelio Leonardia, agreed to the collective claim on the costs of preventive measures they have undertaken against the oil spill, at a meeting presided by Gov. Joseph Marañon at the Capitol in Bacolod City yesterday.
The collective claims will be consolidated by the Provincial Disaster Management Team and the deadline for submissions will be the end of November, Marañon said. If the claim is collective it will be easier to follow it up, he said.
Captain Patrick Joseph, IOPC claims manager, had earlier said the IOPC provides compensation for oil pollution damage caused by oil spills from tankers. Joseph said claims of as much as $300 million can be made for the pollution damage caused by the Solar 1 spill.
“Reasonable preventive measures will qualify for compensation,” he said.
The main types of claims that can be made, according to IOPC guidelines, are property damage, clean up operations and preventive measures, losses in fishery, mariculture and tourism, and environmental damage.
The IOPC also stresses that expense must actually be incurred, response measures should be reasonable and justifiable, and expense must be due directly to the contamination.(CPG, Visayan Daily Star, Oct. 18, 2006)
SPORTSFISHERMEN proved here on Sunday that the recent oil spill in Guimaras has had little effect on its marine life, bringing in an assorted catch of bottom dwelling fish including a scary 23-lb. manta ray.
The fishermen, members of the 200-strong Iloilo Anglers Association (ISA), prowled their favorite fishing grounds around Guimaras island the whole day Sunday to participate in a fishing tournament as it did every month for the past 17 years of its existence.
This month’s event was dubbed the Petron Invitational Fishing Tournament. Petron sponsored the tournament on invitation of ISA, through local Petron products dealer Johnny Young who is also an angler and director of ISA.
Of the nine teams that sailed in separate boats, Team Bluefin proved to be the luckiest sweeping the top three individual contests for biggest catch and the Team Championship for the largest haul. The day’s champion fisherman was businessman Joel Camacho who hauled in a 13.14- pound Diamond Jack (Bukan). Camacho said he used a 12-lb. fishing line to reel in the fish, which put up a 20-minute fight.
(For the rest of the ‘praise’ release, click Sunstar Iloilo, Oct. 18, 2006.)
Tons of oil-coated debris in Sitio Dungkaan, Brgy. Lucmayan (From TNT web site)
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Region VI heads the four teams that is now assessing the affected communities of Guimaras and Iloilo due to the Solar I oil spill. The teams were created through Special Order No. 0906-002 signed by Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas, Rafael Coscolluela who is the concurrent Chairperson of the Guimaras Task Force SOS.
The four (4) teams are composed of a multi-partite group coming from the Department of Health, International Oil Tanker on Pollution Fund, Department of Agriculture, Department of Science and Technology, Philippine Coast Guard, representative from the local government, and representative from the Office of the Presidential Assistant, Western Visayas. Leaders of the teams are Team I, Tommy Doyola of PENRO Guimaras, Team 2, Engr. Silvino San Luis of EMB, Team 3, Engr. Samson Guillergan, Division Chief of EMB, and Team 4, Vilma Limates of Coastal Zones Management Services of DENR.
The teams are tasked to conduct a scientific-based inspection and assessment of the oil spill affected areas so that it can be declared safe for human, marine and terrestrial life habitation so that the Committee on Clean Bill of Health can issue clearance. The team has been given two weeks to conduct their assessment and will report immediately to the Guimaras Task Force SOS so that proper action can be made public.
The Task Force is now fast tracking the assessment so that the people in Guimaras can go back to their normal life. It has been a difficult moment for the evacuees and those who were affected to stay at evacuation centers or within their relatives and live an abnormal life depriving them of the only livelihood that they knew. Although the government is not amiss in its obligation to provide the daily food and employ those whose fishing livelihood had been affected, yet the fisherfolk were already eager to go back to their places and resume their normal life. (rac/DENR PR)
THE siphoning of oil from the sunken MT Solar I off Guimaras will begin in December or January yet, Philippine defense chief Avelino Cruz said Wednesday.
In an interview, Cruz said it would not be advisable to siphon off the oil earlier than December because there are still six weather disturbances to hit the Philippines according to the Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Service Administration (Pagasa).
“That is their target…December (or) January, because the prediction of PAGASA is that there are six more typhoons coming this October and November. It’s not favorable if you siphon off the oil when there is (a) typhoon,” Cruz told reporters.
Cruz had earlier said the siphoning of the oil could start before October ends.
Cruz said the siphoning may take at least 30 to 45 days to be completed, although he could not say how much still remain from the tanker which carried about two million liters of oil before it sank August 11.
(For the full story, click GMA News TV, Oct. 18, 2006.)
• Province mulls area-based labor
By DAVID ISRAEL SINAY
Panay News, Oct. 18, 2006
GUIMARAS – The provincial government plans socio-economic interventions on the oil spill-affected communities to help residents displaced of their livelihood – which is mainly fishing – using grants and financial assistance from its “Project Sunrise.”
“Project Sunrise” was introduced by the provincial government to accommodate grants and financial assistance.
Gov. JC Rahman Nava disclosed that an area-based livelihood program is being readied by the provincial government.
“We are only waiting for the national government and agencies concerned to declare the affected shores safe and clean for the residents to return to their homes,” Nava told Panay News.
Nava said that after the affected coasts will be declared clean and safe, “we will immediately initiate area-based alternative livelihood to the displaced residents.”
Until now, Nava stressed, not a single record or detail was received by his office about the levels of the hydrogen sulfide in the air, and the shorelines.
The governor intends to initiate the program next month – November – “when the clean up operations is already done in restoring back the affected areas and until things stabilize.”
“This will be used as an augmentation (capital) to the rehabilitation plans of the national government. Funds from the national government (for the immediate rehabilitation of the province) may come in late,” Nava clarified.
As of October 10, 2006, Task Force Sunrise’s Trust Fund amounted to P26,846,121.27, as certified by Guimaras Provincial Treasurer Carmen Manzan, through their web site http://project sunrise.org.
The Province of Iloilo gave P200,000; Emily Lopez, P20,050; Robert Wilson, P5,000; Provincial Administrators League of the Philippines, P12,000; Provincial Government of Cebu, P5 million; Malacañang, P20 million; Banko Buena Inc., P5,000; Bagacay Elementary School, P2,039.75; Province of Aklan, P200,000; Roxas City, P200,000; League of Cities of the Philippines, P50,000; and Province of Capiz, P200,000.
Also, Ramon Villavicencio, P1,000; Credit Advice, P1,000; Province of Nueva Ecija, P100,000; Province of Batanes, P50,000; Bacolod City, P200,000; St. Pauls-Iloilo Medical Staff, P17,500; Province of Negros, P200,000; LGU, NGAs Personnel Association, P44,053.40; and Northern Negros State College of Science and Technology, P8,600.
The Philippine Association of Water District Inc. donated P30,000; Province of Cavite, P100,000; Negros Bikes, P85,000; Guimaras Families Association of Guam, P100,300; and Mr. and Mrs. Richard Hamilton, P14,578.12.
Nava said there were already livelihood programs introduced in some areas — like salabat (ginger tea)-making.
“It is in partnership with the provincial government (under the provincial technical education program) and the Technical Education Skills Development Authority (TESDA),” he said.
He revealed that majority of his constituents rely on fishing, as their source of income, and the sinking of M/T Solar 1 has ravaged the livelihood and other forms of sustenance of the residents at shore.
For more than two months now, Guimaras still awaits confirmation from agencies concerned to declare the areas affected clean and safe from the effects of Petron Corp.’s bunker fuel oil wreaking havoc to the marine ecosystem and livelihood of the people.
M/T Solar 1 was chartered by Petron Corp. to carry 2.19 liters of its bunker fuel from Bataan to be transported to Mindanao when it sank off the Guimaras Strait on August 11, 2006.
By Marinel Cruz
Inquirer, Oct. 17, 2006
AN independent filmmaker who was part of the 16-man team that flew to Guimaras Island to shoot short films on the oil spill disaster charged ABC 5 of censorship after the network aired the team’s works last week.
Speaking during the premiere of “Guimaras: Short Films from the Oil Spill” at the digital theater of Robinsons Galleria in Quezon City on Friday, Bacolod-based filmmaker JP Carpio said “specific and key portions of the film involving the residents of Guimaras expressing their honest feelings … were censored.”
Carpio said the censorship “destroys the very reason all the films were made—to help give Guimaras and its people a voice, to help show their perspective.”
Carpio and 15 other filmmakers were invited by the newly formed Independent Filmmakers Cooperative (IFC) to shoot a 10-minute film each to create awareness on the environmental crisis in Western Visayas. Four-minute versions of the movies were aired on ABC 5’s current affairs program “Shorts” on Oct. 8.
According to Carpio, he submitted a six-minute version of his short film “Bunker O: Sumirib” as requested by the show’s production staff. But in an e-mail Carpio sent to friends the day after the airing, he said the four-minute version the network showed “was horribly compromised. [It] was not my film … I disown that film.”
(For the full story, click Indie filmmaker.)
The Philippine Star 10/18/2006
RESIDENTS of Guimaras affected by the oil spill claimed the other day that hunger now looms over the province, specifically the more than 6,156 families who depend on the sea for their livelihood.
During the celebration of the World Food Day, the FoodFirst Information and Action Network-Philippines (FIAN-Philippines) and its partner-organization Victims of Oil Spill in Guimaras (VOSG) pressed the government, Petron Corp., and Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC) to immediately put in place alternative livelihood projects and go beyond relief operations.
“At present, most efforts are geared towards environmental concerns. While FIAN-Philippines sees its importance, our mandate calls for us to raise the issue of the growing hunger in the island and the need for Petron, the tanker’s owner and the national government to put in place alternative livelihood projects and provide food assistance to the people,” FIAN-Philippines said in a statement.
The organization claimed that only four food relief mission have been made since Aug. 11 — one by the provincial government, another by a television network, the third by a former Guimaras governor, and the last by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO).
“The government relief is very much media-oriented,” FIAN-Philippines said. “As the media focus leaves Guimaras, so as the attention of the government.”— Katherine Adraneda
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