Paradise lost as tourists flee Guimaras resorts

By Cecil Morella
Agence France-Presse

NAGARAO – Resorts in the Philippines are starting to count the cost from the country’s worst oil spill as tourists shun the blackened beaches of what was once a tiny corner of paradise.

For Helen Stummer, more than 20 years of hard work virtually disappeared overnight when the oil tanker Solar I went down off Guimaras Island more than two weeks ago.

As waves foul-smelling oil started to wash up on the pristine beachfront of the Nagarao resort, her guests packed and left.

“Our investment is totally lost,” sighed Stummer, a Filipina who bought the uninhabited, 10-hectare (25-acre) coral outcrop on the southern edge of the Guimaras Strait with her German husband nearly a quarter-century ago.

Staff of the secluded, family-run tropical island haven valiantly fought back the giant slick with hastily cut down logs, bamboo and wild palm fronds, and the improvised effort managed to keep away most of the sludge.

But to no avail – mass cancellations of reservations have all but wiped out this year’s tourist season and most of next year’s.

“We are not talking about today and tomorrow,” she said of the crisis facing her and other island resort owners. “We are talking about years to come.”

The Nagarao has built a cult following among northern Europeans who flee the continent’s harsh winters.

(Click INQ7.net for the full story. Published Aug. 29, 2006)

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OH don’t worry Mrs. Stummer, the tourists will be back. After all the Arroyo government has now decided to call the environmental disaster “Solar I oil spill”, not “Guimaras oil spill.” Who are these jokers in Malacañang? Get a grip already!

Inmates go bald, donate hair for oil spill cleanup, but…

SOME 3,400 inmates in Quezon City Jail agreed to cut their hair Tuesday and donate it to clean up the oil spill off Guimaras island, TV Patrol World reported Tuesday.

But an Iloilo-based environmental group said using hair and feathers to clean up the oil slick might not be such a good idea after all.

Melvin Purzuelo of the Save Our Seas Movement said using hair and feather in the oil spill booms could do more harm than good for the environment.

“Chicken feathers smell bad. We need to reduce the smell so we can use these feathers otherwise we’ll just add to the bunker oil fumes,” Purzuelo said.

Hair would take very long time to decompose, not to mention the chemical treatments made before these were cut that could affect other life forms like seagrasses and mangroves, he added.

“With no less than President [Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo] pitching for the gathering of hairs, we expect these coming in very huge volumes soon,” Purzuelo said.

The Save Our Seas Movement is calling on technologists, scientists and engineers to provide practical solutions and operational support for the community-based clean-up and rehabilitation activities of the oil spill triggered by the sinking MT Solar 1 off the coast of Guimaras.

Locally available absorbent materials like rice straws, corn cobs, jute sacks, and saw dusts have been used as indigenous oil spill booms to contain and collect oil from the Guimaras shores and the towns of Ajuy and Concepcion in Northern Iloilo, said Purzuelo.

At the Quezon City jail, warden Col. Ignacio Panti said the inmates willingly agreed to shave off their hair Tuesday afternoon.

Hundreds of inmates at the New Bilibid Prisons (NBP) in Muntinlupa also joined the campaign and cut off their hair.

Two inmates, Ricardo Perlos and Jun Estacio, said they agreed to go bald as a way of thanking the government for abolishing the death penalty.

“In a way, donating my hair to help the environment lessens my sins,” Estacio said.

Serafin Barretto, chief of the Bureau of Jail Managemnent and Penology in the capital, urged other jail wardens to encourage inmates in Metro Manila to do the same thing.

Environmental group Greenpeace earlier said hair, rice straw and corncobs could be used as makeshift booms to absorb the oil.

(From ABS-CBN News and INQ7.net, Aug. 29, 2006.)

DOH eyeing relocation of kids, elderly in Guimaras

CHILDREN, elderly folk and pregnant women from the central Philippine island-province of Guimaras are due for relocation as health officials reported that toxic fumes at oil-smeared beaches have risen to alarming levels.

Initial ambient monitoring by the Department of Health (DOH) showed that potentially toxic organic components from two study areas in Guimaras were beyond the minimum risk levels for humans.

Health Secretary Francisco Duque III said the DOH “shall be recommending the relocation of children, elderly, and pregnant women from the oil spill-contaminated area if repeated ambient air monitoring continues to be poor, which may significantly affect their health condition.”

“Those with preexisting conditions such as respiratory, cardiac, kidney or neurological disorders, among others are also at risk,” he added.

Health officials also found that 29 residents in Tando and La Paz villages in severely hit Nueva Valencia town have experienced dizziness, headaches, coughs, shortness of breath and chest pains.

Some villagers were also found to suffer from redness, rashes and other skin problems.

Almost all of the residents in the study were taken from Tando village. They were aged two to 75 years old, with four children and 25 adults.

“Many chemicals in bunker oil are potentially toxic and therefore we must constantly monitor the affected communities. Health effects are also wide and can be acute and mild as skin irritation to something chronic and severe like cancers and leukemia,” Duque said.

The DOH recently downplayed reports that a Guimaras resident suffered heart attack after having difficulty breathing due to toxic fumes.

It said the fatality Remelio Dalida, 26, was drinking the night before he died and had a history of hypertension.

(For the full story, click GMANews.TV. Story published Aug. 29, 2006.)

This takes the cake!

It’s now ‘Solar oil spill’

By Christine Avendaño

INAMPULUGAN ISLAND, Guimaras – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said yesterday the oil spill that hit Guimaras Island should be called the “Solar oil spill.”

“Let us not call it the Guimaras oil spill. Guimaras should not be blamed for it,” she said in Filipino during a media pool interview at the Costa Aguada island resort here.

Ms. Arroyo underscored the need to tell the public that the spill did not cover the whole of Guimaras Island.

While the incident has resulted in 300 cancellations of reservations in some beach resorts, she said that authorities all the more should work to restore the people’s confidence in the island’s tourist attraction.

She said she was inviting Lory Tan, of the World Wide Fund for Nature, to join Task Force Guimaras in supervising rehabilitation efforts and cited the need for more scientific studies to help the affected areas.

Tourism Secretary Ace Durano, who suggested changing the appellation of the spill, told the President at a meeting of the task force that the spill affected only seven of the 24 beach resorts on the island.

Tan told reporters he and the others at the meeting agreed to the change of the spill’s name.

“If we say Guimaras oil spill, we’re going to kill Guimaras,” Tan said. “If we say MT Solar I, at least the tanker has sunk.”

He noted that the massive oil spill that happened in Alaska in 1989 was referred to as the Exxon Valdez oil spill after the tanker that caused the disaster.

Some reporters witnessed an irritated President telling certain people that she wanted the media to see a resort not affected by the oil spill. The Costa Aguada resort has been affected by the spill, as evidenced by spill booms deployed nearby. (See earlier post below)

(Click PDI for the story, published Aug. 29, 2006.)

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ARE these guys serious? How many hours did this presidential task force meet yesterday, and at a beautiful resort at that, only to come up with a laughable decision like this? Puro swimming lang ang ginawa nyo ano?

Why can’t we call it “Petron oil spill”? Obviously the government is already staging the scenario where only the oil tanker’s owners will be found responsible for the oil spill, while Petron officials will just be slapped on the wrist.

I wouldn’t put it past Gloria. After all, Nick Alcantara is the brother of Tommy Alcantara, former Trade and Industry Undersecretary and no. 1 GMA superfan. Tommy and Nick belong to a powerful and influential Alcantara family from the south with businesses in several industries under the Alsons Group of Companies. Tommy also heads the de-facto Philippine Embassy in Taiwan called the Manila Economic Cooperation Office.

And of course, Gloria is buddy-buddy with Saudi Aramco President and CEO Abdallah S. Jum’ah, whose facilities she visited last May.

Abdallah S. Jum’ah takes Philippines President Gloria Arroyo on a tour of Saudi Aramco’s Shaybah facilities. (Photo by Hadi A. Al-Makayyal/Saudi Aramco Click here.)

By the way, Nick, weren’t you once treasurer and director of All Asia Capital and Trust Corp., that ill-fated investment company of Roland Young which went belly up in the late 90s? Didn’t you guys the blame the Asian financial crisis for your woes? How convenient. Well, weren’t you lucky to be appointed to Petron right after that disaster?

Here’s Nick Alcantara at a Petron press conference on Aug. 24. Remember the name, remember the face. (Bullit Marquez/AP)

PDI Editorial: Polluters pay

WHAT could possibly be the worst oil spill disaster to hit the country is now engaging the attention of government and private agencies as well as foreign organizations. And well that it should, because it is affecting the lives of tens of thousands of people and damaging extensive areas of sea and land. Its effects could last well beyond the present decade.

The first concern, of course, is to contain the oil spill to prevent it from causing more damage than it has already done. The second is to give aid to the tens of thousands of people whose livelihood has been affected by the pollution of the sea in which they fish and of the land on which they plant. The third is to pinpoint responsibility for the sea disaster and penalize the guilty parties. And the fourth is to pass laws and lay down guidelines to prevent a repetition of the disaster and mitigate the damage caused by similar accidents.

On the third point, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez has said that Petron Corp. could be legally responsible for the massive oil spill off Guimaras Island. He likened the oil spill to the Philsports (formerly Ultra) arena stampede during the staging of the “Wowowee” show last Feb. 4.

Petron has said that “technically, the liability for the oil spill damage rests with the ship owner.” It also said it felt it had a moral responsibility to give aid to the affected communities.

It should be impressed upon Petron that it has a legal, and not just a moral, responsibility to make restitution for the damage that the oil spill is causing. Petron should be reminded of the internationally accepted principle that “the polluter pays.” The principle is that a company that causes pollution should pay for the cost of removing it, or provide compensation to those that have been affected by it.

The principle has received strong support in most of the countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the European Community. In 1989 the Council of the OECD approved the Guiding Principles Relating to Accidental Pollution. One if its provisions says: “In most instances and notwithstanding issues concerning the origin of the accident, the cost of such reasonable measures taken by the authorities is initially borne by the operator for administrative convenience or for other reasons. When a third party is liable for the accident, that party reimburses to the operator the cost of reasonable measures to control accidental pollution taken after an accident.”

(Click here for the rest of the piece, published Aug. 29, 2006 in the Phil. Daily Inquirer.)

Oil firms OK’d captain’s papers; investigators note ‘violations’

CAPTAIN Norberto Aguro, master of the ill-fated MT Solar I, told government probers Tuesday that his capability to handle oil tankers passed the scrutiny of Petron Corp. and two other top oil firms.

Testifying at the first hearing of the Special Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), Aguro said representatives of Petron, Pilipinas Shell and Caltex (now Chevron) Phils. have all evaluated his training documents but never questioned his qualifications to operate oil tankers.

While occassionally noting that he was “skilled” in his craft, however, Aguro on Tuesday admitted knowing that his seafarer’s identification card expired back in 2002.

The matter was raised by Capt. Ernesto Bondoc, a member of the BMI representing the Professional Regulation Commission (PRC).

Aguro was the first witness for the investigation held at the Coast Guard headquarters in Manila. He arrived 9:45 a.m.

He sported a gray blue polo and black pants when he faced the board headed by Rear Admiral Danilo Abinoja of the Coast Guard.

The Maritime Industry Authority (Marina), in its initial report on the incident, noted that Agoro does not have Advance Training on Oil Tanker Operations, “which is required for the Master on board oil tanker.”

“Thus [Aguro’s] COC (Certificate of Competency) limits him to serve on board chemical tankers only,” the agency said in its Marine Casualty Investigation Report released shortly after the incident.

In an exclusive interview with GMA News last week, Aguro maintained that the government did not require certification for oil tankers when he first secured his papers decades ago.

(Click GMA News for the full story.)

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SO the question is, despite the captain’s lack of qualifications to pilot the oil tanker, why did Petron and the other oil firms still allow him to ferry their products? Hmmm…I smell a money trail somewhere…

RP to seek UN help in cleanup; tanker a ‘relic’

By SAM MEDIAVILLA
The Manila Times Reporter

PRESIDENT Arroyo on Monday said the Philippines will file a resolution in the United Nations to seek the cooperation and help of UN member-countries in the massive cleanup operation on Guimaras Island.

As this developed, environmental group Greenpeace on Monday bared that the sunken M/T Solar 1 in Guimaras has been sailing for more than 50 years and should be considered ” a floating relic” for its age, DZMM reported.

‘Yung tanker na ito ay noong 1951 ito kinomisyon, 55 years old na ‘yan (The tanker was commissioned in 1951, so it’s 55 years old),” Red Constantino of Greenpeace Southeast Asia told an interview prior to the start of a Senate environment committee investigation Monday.

He said that the Solar 1 is no longer fit to sail.

He added that Petron Corp. and Sunshine Maritime Corp. could have cut down on expenses. Petron chartered the tanker owned by Sunshine. (Full story here.)

President Arroyo said Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, also the chairman of Task Force Guimaras, has instructed Interior Undersecretary Ernesto Carolina to file a worldwide appeal to UN member-nations to help the country in its cleanup drive.

Arroyo said the Philippines, being a signatory to the 1992 Civil Liability Convention and Fund Convention, could draw at least $310-million compensation for the oil spill that damaged the water off Guimaras.

Malacañang claimed the compensation could be given to the Philippines under both the two conventions because of loss of income as a direct consequence of an oil spill. It added that preventive and cleanup costs incurred by government and other bodies may also be claimed.

Reports said that the United Nations Development Program is also providing aid in the cleanup in the amount of $16 million, roughly P800 million.

The sunken tanker, M/T Solar 1, which has been under water since August 11, has leaked an estimated 500,000 liters of bunker fuel, the worst oil spill in Philippine maritime history.

Interviewed over Radio Mindanao Network, the President said the country’s appeal to the UN was prompted by reports that despite the large amount of chemical dispersant sprayed on the massive oil slick, officials of Philippine Coast Guard could not determine if they have contained the spill.

(Published on Aug. 29, 2006. For the full story, click ABS-CBN News.)

Petron’s liability

I WAS having a bad day. My older girl is sick. The new househelp almost burned the kitchen. And I couldn’t find anything that pins some legal liability on Petron for the Guimaras oil spill.

I need to write this the way things happened.

For days, I have been trying to find the Coast Guard circulars which, according to Petron, are the bases for its exemption from liability for the Guimaras oil spill. I’ve been to the Philippine Coast Guard Web site and this was the only thing there was:

Forbidden

You don’t have permission to access to this document on this server.

Apache Server at coastguard.gov.phù

Nice, eh?

Earlier today, I received an e-mail asking me to sign a petition against Petron. The petition states that Petron is legally and morally liable. I had to ask the sender what the basis for the legal liability is. She referred me to Caltex’s liability in the Doña Paz case. In that case, a tanker carrying Caltex petroleum rammed into the overloaded ferry Doña Paz (owned by Sulpicio Lines) killing thousands of people, the worst maritime disaster in Philippine history. The Caltex petroleum carried by the tanker spilled into the water, burst into flames and killed thousands who may have otherwise survived.

The case is not squarely applicable.

(Read the rest of the column at Manila Standard Today, Aug. 29, 2006.)

‘Solutions must be based on science’

By Jonathan L. Mayuga
Correspondent

WORRIED by the long-term effects of the Guimaras oil spill on the environment, scientists on Monday warned that it is important to save the entire ecosystem now being threatened by the oil slick.

The Population, Health and Environment (PHE) Network, a group composed of population, health and environment advocates, expressed dismay over the “sluggish” response of the government in dealing with the oil spill and are calling for “Green Justice.”

The group said the situation at Guimaras is getting worse and the government must act quickly to prevent oil from oozing out of the sunken MT Solar 1 at the bottom of the Guimaras Strait, and quickly implement rescue, relief and rehabilitation to save the rich marine biodiversity in Western Visayas.

In a press briefing, Prof. Perry Ong of the UP Institute of Biology said the spill will continue to harm the environment, noting that thick oil that covers big portions of the seas like a giant blanket prevents photosynthesis, the process by which plants make food and live to feed other plants and animals, from taking place.

“If this happens, the microscopic plants will die and those that feed from them will also die. This will have a serious effect on the food chain. Eventually, people will have less food to eat,” he said.

Miriam Azurin-Abaja, a researcher of PHE, estimated P3 million to P5 million is lost to small fishermen in Guimaras and Iloilo. The Palupandan shrimp industry and the Valladolid anchovy industry, PHE said, also suffered severely, losing so far P50 million in investment each. A still undetermined amount of losses in pearl, seaweed, rice, fruit and tourism industries must also be considered.

Meanwhile, Joel Palma of the World Wide Fund cited the need to apply more science to solutions to the oil spill. He said scientists must come up with a long-term solution to disasters like oil spills, and the government can only do that by engaging scientists— particularly marine biologists—in coming up with a quick response to disasters.

(For the full story, click Business Mirror. Link good until today only.)

Putting on the spin; GMA irked with media

IT never fails to amaze me that even with a disaster as tragic as the Guimaras oil spill, the government’s media handlers still try to put a spin on the issue making it sound not as bad as it really does.

In my mailbox tonight, I received the regular press releases from the government by way of the Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. One particular piece caught my attention and made me gag.

Of course it’s the government’s job to spin problems into positive news, but not at the expense of the country becoming a laughing stock in the end when foreign tourists find out the real deal in Guimaras.

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Tourism thrives amid devastation in Guimaras

INAMPULUGAN ISLAND, Guimaras Province—Despite the massive damage wrought by the oil spill on the coastal areas of Guimaras, the island’s tourism industry continues to thrive.

This was the report today of Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo before the executive meeting here of Task Force Guimaras.

The President flew here this afternoon to convene the task force she organized to oversee efforts to contain the oil spill and undertake the rehabilitation of the calamity-hit areas.

“So you see, there are portions of Guimaras not affected by the oil spill,” the President told members of the media covering her second visit here in two days.

Only the towns of Nueva Valencia, Sibunag, San Lorenzo, and Buenavista in the southwestern part of Guimaras were affected.

Out of the 24 tourist resorts in Guimaras, only seven were affected by the oil slick.

The cluster of resorts at the eastern side of the island were not affected by the soil spillage.

Aside from its world known sweet mangoes, Guimaras boasts of pristine beaches and rich marine life.

The island is being promoted by the Department of Tourism (DOT) as a pilgrimage and eco-tourism destination.

SEE what I mean? What is funnier is the news that comes after this, courtesy of the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
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Arroyo’s temper flares over Guimaras media coverage

By Lira Dalangin-Fernandez
Reporter

GUIMARAS – An irked President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo scolded her media handlers for bringing members of the press at an oil slick-stricken beach resort here where she’s staying.

Upon arriving at the Costa Aguada Island Resort and making a short tour, Arroyo appeared surprised to see a horde of reporters waiting to cover her visit.

The President, known for her quick temper, was overheard asking her handlers why the media were brought to the resort when press coverage should be geared toward dispelling the negative publicity adversely affecting the province’s tourism industry.

(Originally published on INQ7.net, Aug. 28, 2006. Click here for the full story.)

OH Gloria! Unlike you, who took 14 days before even visiting the site of this terrible tragedy, the media has been at Ground Zero from Day One. So even if you shoo them away from covering you, which is their job by the way, they know the truth and will continue to write it. They will certainly see through your PR machinations.

Hmmm…I hear Germany is nice this time of the year.