DILG Undersecretary Austere Panadero and May Wong, First Secretary for Development of the Canadian Embassy are expected to grace the occasion, which will be held at the Guimaras Trade and Information Center, Guimaras Provincial Capitol in Jordan, Guimaras. (For the rest, click here.)

The fishermen of this small paradise are pinning their hopes on livelihood projects like handicrafts and agriculture to bring their lives back on track after the Aug. 11, 2006 oil spill. (Click here for the rest.)

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Guimaras folk still reeling from oil spill nightmare
By ELLALYN B. DE VERA
May 4, 2009

JORDAN, Guimaras Province—Positive attitude is what helped the people of Guimaras Island “survive” the devastating oil spill in 2006 that affected 36 coastal communities in Iloilo and Guimaras provinces. However, they need more help to continue the mangrove rehabilitation and livelihood projects for affected families.

The tanker M/T Solar 1, carrying a cargo of at least two million liters or 13,000 barrels of industrial oil, sank in the southwestern portion of Guimaras Island on August 11, 2006. The cargo chartered by Petron Corp. was en route to Zamboanga from Bataan when it capsized in rough waters. (Click here for the rest.)

ILOILO CITY – Guimaras fishermen will benefit from some P2.4 million in grants that the US government was giving to those who had lost their livelihood as a result of an oil spill in 2006.

Citi Foundation and Petron Foundation will finance the second phase of a mariculture livelihood program for people in Nueva Valencia in Guimaras. The town was the worst hit among the island’s five municipalities when oil spilled from the sunken MT Solar I southeast of the island on Aug. 11, 2006. (Read the rest at Firm pays back.)

The Fact-Finding Investigation of the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas on millions in feared government losses of the Oil Spill fund has now dragged a seemingly “all-star cast” of characters cum subjects of inquiry.

With some P10 million in Presidential assistance as center of the concern, The News Today (TNT) learned that an extensive “first-hand” report has already been submitted. In it, a TNT source said, were names of the suspected erring government personalities in the employ of the Guimaras Provincial Government. (Click here for the rest.)

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I don’t doubt that some anomaly may have occurred in the release of the Oil Spill Fund, but just from the news stories that have been published over the past weeks about the Office of the Ombudsman, it seems to me that Ombudsgirl Merceditas Gutierrez is fighting back the negative publicity about her lack of action on corruption cases by investigating and filing charges against politicians who are contra-partido to her presidentita. Hmm…

ILOILO CITY – Mangroves in Guimaras continue to suffer from the effects of one of the worst oil spills in the country, three years after the disaster.

Scientists have discovered more abnormalities in mangroves that were contaminated by the oil spill, which pointed to the continued effects of the disaster.

Dr. Resurreccion Sadaba, program manager of the University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV) Oil Spill Response Program, said recent samplings on mangroves showed “albinism” among trees. (Read the rest here.)

Women bore much of the brunt of the oil spill that ravaged Guimaras Island as some disaster response and rehabilitation programs failed to consider their specific needs, a research of social scientists showed.

In their paper “Gender Perspectives in Disaster Responses and Interventions to MT Solar I Oil Spill,” University of the Philippines in the Visayas (UPV)-based social scientists said that while there were efforts towards gender equality, some of the programs were inappropriate in addressing specific needs especially of women during the disaster.

“Most of these projects have not fully integrated gender equality and women’s empowerment concerns in the different stages of project management, implementation and monitoring…” according to the research conducted by Rosario Asong, Ebonia Seraspe, Diana Aure and Rosario Panganiban. (Click here for the rest.)

ILOILO CITY, Philippines — Social scientists have recommended continued psychosocial monitoring and support for Guimaras residents affected by the massive oil spill two years ago after a study showed that most of them were still traumatized by the calamity.

The study conducted by former University of the Philippines in the Visayas chancellor Ida Siason, showed a “significant level of psycho-social distress” among 42 percent to 73 percent of around 250 survey respondents from seven highly and moderately affected barangay (villages).

The villages are mostly in Nueva Valencia town, the hardest hit of the province’s five municipalities. (Click PDI for the rest.)

The scientific studies showed abnormalities in the breeding and growth of mangroves, sea grass, marine animals and sea cucumbers, and attributed these mainly to the contamination of the marine environment by bunker fuel from the sunken M/T Solar I.

The studies, presented Thursday during the opening of the two-day Second National Conference on Solar I Oil Spill, showed the marine resources still suffered from stress brought by the contamination despite showing signs of recovery. (Click here for the rest.)

The University of the Philippines-Visayas will host a two-day national conference starting today on the updates of the impact of the Solar 1 oil spill in Guimaras more than two years ago.

The gathering, themed “Two Years After the Solar 1 Oil Spill: Where Are We?”, will be held at the Auditorium of UPV Iloilo City campus.

Organized under the Oil Spill Response Program, the conference will be participated by the Core University Program, UPV and Kagoshima University Faculty of Fisheries, the Japanese Society for the Promotion of Science-Department of Science and Technology, and the Province of Guimaras. (Read the rest here.)

Local excursionists top the list of visitors in the island-province of Guimaras numbering to more than 100,000 for the past 10 months of the year. Tourism is one of the island’s industries aside from its agriculture.

In the records provided by the Guimaras Tourism Office, the number of local excursionists posted a high record in March with 20,774 visitors. Visitors also registered high records in the months of April and May. In April, there were 14,397 visitors and 11,231 in May. The number of tourist arrivals contributed thousands of pesos in total receipts. The months of March, April and May are considered as summer months and mostly people prefer to go to resort and beaches. (Click here for the rest.)

Online news site The News Today (www.thenewstoday.info) reported that House Resolution 830 filed last Oct. 8 seeks a probe into the payments by an international insurance firm.

Filing the resolution were party list Reps. Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño of Bayan Muna, Luzviminda Ilagan and Liza Maza of Gabriela, and Rafael Mariano of Anakpawis. (Click here for the rest.)

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—Five congressmen have urged the House of Representatives to support the stand of officials and residents of Guimaras against mining operations on the island-province.

House Resolution 841, filed on Oct. 10, calls on the chamber to support the opposition of Guimarasnons against the entry and operations of mining companies.

The resolution was sponsored by Guimaras Rep. JC Rahman Nava, Bayan Muna Representatives Satur Ocampo and Teodoro Casiño, Gabriela Rep. Luzviminda Ilagan and Anakpawis Rep. Rafael Mariano.

In the resolution, the congressmen described the island as rich in natural resources and one of the pristine popular tourist destinations in the country. (Click here for the rest.)

ILOILO CITY — GUIMARAS RESIDENTS AND OFFICIALS have launched a signature campaign against applications for large-scale mining on the island-province.

Led by Church groups and officials, the campaign coupled with an education drive in villages seeks to pressure government agencies to disapprove mining operations on the island that still has to recover from the massive oil spill two years ago.

Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava said they would continue their campaign against mining applications even though the Department of Environment and Natural Resources had already said it would consider the stand and sentiments of the residents when they evaluate the mining applications. (Click here for the rest.)

ILOILO CITY – Health officials in Guimaras found dangerously high levels of the deadly heavy metal lead in water samples taken from five villages in two towns in the province.

Dr. Felicito Lozarita, provincial health officer, said results of tests held April 16 showed that lead content in water sources in five villages in Nueva Valencia and Sibunag towns were above .01 mg per liter, the level of lead considered safe.

Lozarita said four villages in Nueva Valencia and one in Sibunag registered higher than normal levels. (Click here for the rest.)

The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has committed to make a thorough review of all mining applications in the island province of Guimaras.

“All pending applications will be under serious study,” said DENR Secretary Jose “Lito” Atienza during a recent visit here.

Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava said the communities oppose the move on large-scale mining explorations.

The Guimaras provincial government even initiated a massive awareness campaign by posting several “Spare Guimaras” streamers to urge the agency’s Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) to deny applications for massive mining activities. (Click here for the rest.)

GUIMARAS ISLAND – Health officials here are monitoring the quality of drinking water from wells and other sources after samplings showed above normal levels of lead in five villages on the island.

Provincial health officer Dr. Felicito Lozarita said results of water samplings conducted in April 16 this year showed that lead content in water sources in five barangays in Nueva Valencia and Sibunag towns were above the standard of .01 mg per liter.

Lozarita said in an interview that four villages in Nueva Valencia and one in Sibunag registered higher than normal levels.

These are barangays Algeria in Sibunag (.05 mg/l) and San Antonio (.82 mg/l), Igdarapdap (.011 mg/l), Cabalagnan (.013 mg/l) and Panubulon (.022 mg/l) in Nueva Valencia. (Click here for the rest.)

JORDAN, Guimaras – The Department of Environment and Natural Resources yesterday said it will consider the opposition of officials and residents of Guimaras in evaluating applications for mining exploration on the island.

DENR Regional Executive Director, Lormelyn Claudio, said the strong stance of Guimaras officials will be a factor in the approval or disapproval of at least four applications for mining activities on the 60,000-hectare island.

“If the local government is against it, we have to consider that,” Claudio said in a press conference here at the launching of the Guimaras Integrated Coastal Management Program. (Click here for the rest.)

Guimaras Provincial Agriculturist Ronnie Morante said three projects were identified, among them vegetable production, which has 2,400 beneficiaries.

Projects on swine fattening and goat production have 700 recipients, respectively. (Click here for the rest.)

Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava said they will launch the campaign against approved and pending applications for mining in the province because of its environmental and health effects.

The applications cover from 70 to 80 percent of the 60,000-hectare island with applications covering from 2,000 to 30,000 hectares, according to the governor.

“This will destroy the island,” Nava said here yesterday at the sidelines of the briefing on rehabilitation efforts on areas affected by the August 2006 oil spill.

Guimaras is known for its pristine beaches, export quality mangoes and richness in natural resources. (Click here for the rest.)

JORDAN, GUIMARAS – Guimaras officials have scored the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for implementing oil spill rehabilitation projects in areas not affected by the oil spill.

Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava said the DENR had implemented livelihood projects using rehabilitation funds even in communities that were hardly affected by the Aug. 11, 2006 oil spill.

“I’m not contented with what’s happening. We are in the dark and we don’t know if these are beneficial to the people of Guimaras. I think we should correct this (because) we are wasting precious money,” Nava said during a presentation of updates on the rehabilitation programs marking the second anniversary of the oil spill held on Monday. (Click here for the rest.)

By Nestor P. Burgos Jr.
Visayas Bureau, PDI
08/11/2008

GUIMARAS ISLAND—Two years after a massive oil spill hit this island-province, officials and experts said the island is showing recovery and coping from the impact of the calamity.

But rehabilitation efforts have been stalled by the non-release of around P150 million intended for development programs.

“Our activities are back to normal,” Guimaras Gov. Felipe Nava told the Philippine Daily Inquirer (parent company of INQUIRER.net).

He said residents in all areas affected by the oil spill have gone back to fishing. (Click here for the rest.)

MANILA, Philippines – Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) personnel were instructed Thursday to keep an eye for any possible oil spill from the capsized MV Princess of the Stars passenger ferry off Romblon.

In a statement posted on the DENR website, DENR Sec. Jose Atienza Jr directed DENR personnel, particularly those “in and around Romblon,” to prepare to respond to such a scenario.

“You must be vigilant and ready to get into action at the first sign of an oil spill. We cannot afford additional environmental damages at this time when the world is racing against time to heal the earth from various environmental damages, among which is global warming,” Atienza said.

(Click here for the rest.)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday threw out the record $2.5 billion in punitive damages that Exxon Mobil Corp had been ordered to pay for the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill off Alaska, the nation’s worst tanker spill.

By a 5-3 vote, the high court ruled that the punitive damages award should be slashed to a maximum amount equal to the total relevant compensatory damages of $507.5 million.

The justices overturned a ruling by a U.S. Court of Appeals that had awarded the record punitive damages to about 32,000 commercial fishermen, Alaska natives, property owners and others harmed by the spill.

In the majority opinion, Justice David Souter concluded the $2.5 billion in punitive damages was excessive under federal maritime law, and should be cut to the amount of actual harm.

Soaring oil prices have propelled Exxon Mobil to previously unforeseen levels of profitability in recent years; the company posted earnings of $40.6 billion in 2007.

It took Exxon Mobil just under two days to bring in $2.5 billion in revenue during the first quarter of 2007.

(Click here for the rest.)

AN OIL spill from the Sulpicio Lines ferry that capsized June 21 with more than 800 people on board could destroy coastal areas and aquatic life around Sibuyan and nearby islands and take years to clean up.

The m/v Princess of the Stars was carrying 250,000 liters of bunker fuel in its hold when it capsized near Sibuyan Island in Romblon at the height of typhoon Frank early Saturday, sources close to the investigation of the sinking of the ferry told Standard Today.

A team of investigators who flew over to inspect the overturned hull at close range said small quantities of the fuel had already leaked out of the disabled vessel, indicating that most of the toxic cargo was intact.

“There is evidence that some of the fuel is leaking around the vessel,” a source told Standard Today.

“But if the ship breaks up on its own or is forced open by rescuers looking for survivors, the oil could leak, damaging the environment and destroying the livelihood of fisherfolk in the area for years to come.”

Earlier, rescuers announced that they were planning to force open the hull of the Princess in an effort to find survivors. As of yesterday, only about 48 of 849 passengers and crew on the ship had survived, authorities said.

Divers retrieved only bodies from the capsized vessel yesterday and the Coast Guard said more were likely to be brought in over the next hours.

“Most of the bodies were floating inside. They were trapped when the seven-story ship suddenly tilted and capsized,” Navy spokesman Edgard Arevalo said in a radio interview.

In August 2006, the m/t Solar 1 sank in waters near Guimaras Island off Iloilo, carrying down with it 1.8 million liters of bunker fuel and triggering the country’s worst oil spill.

The Solar 1 carried more fuel than the Princess, but the tanker’s dangerous cargo sank at least 700 meters in the water and several kilometers off the coast of the nearest island, minimizing its effects on the environment, the same source said.

(Click here for the rest.)

PANIC struck some locals of Carles, Iloilo after they saw a black substance scattered in the shores of their municipality.

They believed the said substance might be oil spill from a coal-carrying ship that capsized Saturday last week as Typhoon Frank hit the province of Iloilo.

The local government unit of Carles and the Bantay Dagat personnel immediately went to the area to verify the information. It was proven that the said substance was oil from the ship identified as M/V Lake Paoay from Semirara Island.

The ship capsized about 4 a.m. Saturday.

Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas Raul Banias Monday confirmed the ship spilled about 50,000 liters of oil when it capsized Saturday. He added that it could not damage the waters of Carles and it’s far from the Guimaras oil spill case.

Banias said the Semirara Mining Corp. chartered the M/V Lake Paoay. It was bound for Toledo, Cebu but upon arriving at the seawaters of Carles, strong winds and heavy waves hit the ship until it capsized.

“The oil in the water could not damage the seashore and there is no need to panic,” Banias said over a radio interview.

Banias said the vessel had 24 crews and other persons who also boarded the ship.

According to reports, seven of those in the ship were confirmed dead, while only 4 survived and 26 are still missing.

Banias said they now are monitoring the waters of Carles and will conduct a clearing operation.

Four mining companies have applied for exploration works in the the island province of Guimaras. The exploration applications cover 37,000 hectares or more than half of the island’s total land area which is 600,400 hectares.

The four mining firms are Fil Asian Strategic Resources and Properties Corporation, Dorilag Cement Corporation, Next Generation and Global Philippines. Of the four applicants, Fil Asian and Dorilag were given exploration permits by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. Of the 98 barangays in the island, 84 barangays have been applied for exploration works to determine the presence of iron, copper, gold, limestones and other mineral deposits available in the island.

(Read the rest at Mining in Guimaras.)

Nava said a team from the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) in Manila arrived in the province last week and assessed the damage brought about by the oil spill.

As far as the governor is concerned, the releases that the national government had made was the P50 million for infrastructure, P25 million for the Department of Social Welfare and Development, P2.4 for the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) and more than P4 million for the Department of Health (DOH).

However, Nava is banking on the funds released to the Department of Social Welfare and Development for its cash for work program. The department has still in hand some P100 million for the cash for work program intended for the affected areas.

In one of his visits in Iloilo City, Budget Secretary Rolando Andaya said the national government would only release funds on a case-to-case basis.

Andaya said they are not in a hurry to release any fund without any purpose. The fund should be spent only for rehabilitation purposes and not for anything else. There are proposals from different national government agencies that were disapproved because of its non-relevance.

He stressed out that the fund should not be spent for projects such as road construction which is not in any way related to the rehabilitation of the island as an aftermath of the August 11, 2006 oil spill. The project proponent should give exact and convincing reasons why they should be given funds.

One of those projects that were disapproved by the government is the “food for work” of the Department of Social Welfare and Development Office. There is no need for the government to give allocation to the “food for work” program since the affected residents already returned to their normal lives.

The first Philippine-made, double-hulled oil tanker, designed to prevent costly and environmentally-destructive oil spills such as the disaster that hit Guimaras in 2006, is now sailing.

“The ship is currently transporting bunker fuels in different parts of the country. From the Pacific Ocean to the Petron refinery in Bataan. It started last April 8. So far, the performance of M/T Matikas is far more than we expected.” George Cottrell, president of the Herma Shipyard Inc., said Monday.

Hermio Esguerra, chairman of the Herma Group of Companies, told reporters double-hulled ships such as M/T Matikas would help lower the incidence of oil spills.

Esguerra said that the ship that sank in Guimaras was a single-hulled oil tanker. With a double-hull, petroleum products are protected on all sides, he added.

(Click here for the rest of the story.)

Thank you for your understanding.

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NUEVA VALENCIA, Guimaras – Frankie Aracan leads a pack of journalists through the rocky, winding trail on mountain bikes. He regularly checks if anyone is left behind or is having difficulty catching up.

A few hours later, Aracan gives pointers as they rappel down a 95-foot cliff overlooking the pristine beaches of Guimaras Island.

Aracan is not an expert mountain biker or rappeller although he has undergone training as a guide for adventure sports. On most days, he is on a tricycle ferrying passengers from the town proper of Nueva Valencia to the villages.

But like other residents of Sitio Guisi in Barangay Dolores, he is getting much needed extra income from a heritage tourist site recently launched by the Department of Tourism. He earns P250 to P350 for a day’s work as a tour guide of the community-based Guisi Discovery Quest – bigger than the average P150 he gets from his regular job.

(For the rest, click Guimaras grabs.)