Lessons from a disaster

By Jonathan A. Dela Cruz

TWO weeks into the devastating Guimaras oil spill is not too soon the government to draw a lesson. First, the matter of disaster response and accountability. While we agree that we should all put our heads together in speeding the clean up and spare Guimaras and the other affected areas from a second or even third disaster by getting the remaining three-fourths of the 2 million liter Solar I cargo out of the waters as soon as possible, that should not be used as a cover to spare or diminish the responsibilities of those concerned.

For if truth be told, apart from Petron’s unapologetic resort to quibbling and legalisms in response to its principal responsibility as the polluter-of-record in the country’s and possibly Asean’s worst oil spill, the government’s feeble response to this disaster has been downright contemptible. For an administration which prides itself in micro managing every aspect of national life and a corporate giant which trumpets its “good governance” record every which way it can, the response was by itself disastrous.

Except for the local government and the provincial disaster control committee (PDCC) and the Coast Guard which had to make do with their limited resources, there was no real government presence in and around the disaster area until President Arroyo decided to visit the province nine days after the tragedy, That it took Malacañang days before it ordered the creation of a task force to coordinated government response to the disaster was very telling.

Did the timid response had anything to do with the fear of liabilities which Petron management may have injected into the entire response formulation? Did it have anything to do with the reputed standing of Petron chairman Nick Alcantara with the Palace and the business community which would have brought that relationship into closer scrutiny?

Suffice it to say that in this instance the Palace failed miserably to live up to its responsibility and its reputation at a time when its presence was most needed. Even DENR Secretary Angie Reyes whose department introduced itself enthusiastically into a largely phantom “environmental issue” in the ongoing Poro Point controversy was nowhere to be found at a time when his presence was expected and was deemed critical.

What we had expected from both Petron and the national government was a more active and creative presence.

(Click Malaya for the rest of the column, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Okay, so there’s an upside to this…but really?

‘Oil spill helped in decline of criminality’

By Ruby P. Silubrico

POLICE Regional Director Geary Barias said Tuesday that despite the damage caused by the oil spill in some areas of Guimaras, it helped in the decline of criminality in the area.

“No petty crimes have been noticed since the start of the oil spill. Guimaras is really a peaceful place,” Barias said.

He added that because of the immediate response of Petron Corp. and local government units with the “Food for Work” program, the residents, including teens and bystanders, are kept busy.

“Instead of having a drinking session during their free time, they are in seashore to work and earn money and it really help our bystanders,” Barias added.

(Click Sunstar, Aug. 30, 2006.)

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IMMEDIATE response? What can this guy be referring to?

Oil spill hits fishing grounds; Japanese salvage ship arrives in Iloilo

ABOARD THE EDSA II, Philippines – A sunken tanker responsible for the Philippines’ worst environmental disaster is leaking less oil, but the slick it caused has reached the country’s richest fishing grounds, the Philippine Coast Guard said Wednesday.

Daniel Gayosa, who is commanding the search and rescue vessel EDSA II at the wreck site, told reporters the sunken 998-ton tanker, Solar 1, was leaking “less than 10 liters” of oil per day.

This compared with about 500 liters per day shortly after it sank in extremely deep waters south of Guimaras island on August 11.

“We still don’t know if there is still oil in there. Those tanks are also watertight and it’s possible some of them are still intact. (But) we still don’t know their status,” Gayosa said.

He said the oil that had leaked was “down to a sheen” two weeks after black sludge contaminated hundreds of kilometers of coastline and damaged a large marine reserve in Guimaras.

Meanwhile, Japanese salvage ship Senshei Maru arrived in the country Wednesday afternoon, ABS-CBN News learned.

The salvage ship arrived at the Iloilo Strait at 4 p.m. and is now anchored at the Iloilo International Port.

Reports said the salvage ship’s first mission is to confirm the exact location of the sunken M/T Solar 1 that has been leaking oil under Panay Gulf.

Officials estimated Solar 1’s location at 600 meters underwater at the Panay Gulf.

The Japanese ship is equipped with seabed scanners and has a remotely operated submersible that can determine the position, condition and the exact location of the sunken tanker.

Petron Corp. signed Fukuda Salvage and Marine Works Co. Ltd. a $20 million contract for the services of the salvage ship.

(For the full stories, click Fishing grounds and Salvage ship, Aug. 30, 2006.)

DoJ to look into agencies’ liability for oil spill

By Tetch Torres, Thea Alberto

THE Department of Justice (DoJ) will investigate whether lapses by the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) and Philippine Coast Guard could have helped lead to the August 11 sinking of the M/T Solar I off Guimaras, which triggered one of the country’s worst oil spills.

“We will go beyond the ship owner and captain. We will see if Marina and (the) Coast Guard have not been alert enough to determine the seaworthiness of M/T Solar I,” Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said they would see whether officials of the two agencies might be liable for gross inexcusable negligence under Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft Law.

Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) is waiting for complaints from Guimaras resort owners whose properties were damaged by the oil spill.

PNP Director General Oscar Calderon said CIDG Director Jesus Verzosa is already in Western Visayas “to see the complaints of the owners who were affected by the spill. I believe there are some resorts whose owners would like to present also.”

However, Calderon clarified that the PNP was not yet conducting any investigation.

“We are just taking the complaint, and then we will look for the proper court or agency to take action on these cases; we will just document the cases and refer these to other agencies,” he said.

He added that the PNP will only act as a support group in the investigation aspect since consultations with the multi-agency Task Force Guimaras and Department of Environment and Natural Resources have yet to be done, he added.

Calderon also said he has ordered Western Visayas police director, “Chief Superintendent Geary Barrias, to maximize our policemen in helping in cleaning the area…we have policemen helping the cleanup in Guimaras.”

(From INQ7.net, Aug. 30, 2006)

RP oil spill likened to Alaska’s Exxon Valdez

MIAG-AO – Unchecked damage from one of the worst-ever oil spills in the Philippines has raised fears of a local disaster similar in scale to major catastrophes like that of the Exxon Valdez.

While the amount of oil aboard the Solar I when it sank off Guimaras Island is a fraction of what the Valdez disgorged when it foundered off Alaska in 1989, experts say many more people could ultimately be affected.

Only one-tenth of the Solar’s oil has leaked so far, leaving what experts call a ticking time-bomb on the ocean floor – and while the Valdez spilled in a relatively remote area, hundreds of thousands of people depend on the Guimaras region for their livelihoods.

Marine biologist Nestor Yunque said the number of Alaskans dependent on the ecosystem harmed by the Valdez was minuscule compared to those on the coasts of Guimaras, Panay and Negros islands.

The speed with which the oil reached the Guimaras coast is a key concern, Yunque said, noting that it took time for the Valdez crude to hit the Alaska coast, allowing for some chemical disintegration of the pollutants.

“It took a while,” Yunque said. “It will probably take three or six months before we will be able to see the actual damage [here].”

The Alaska spill contaminated about 1,300 miles (2,100 kilometers) of coastline, killed a quarter-million sea birds, thousands of otters and hundreds of seals. Agence France-Presse

(Click INQ7.net for the full story, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Satellite images show oil slick threatens Negros Occidental

Satellite image on Aug. 24

Satellite image on Aug. 27

(Source: UNOSAT)

Tanker owner defends ship captain

THE owner of the sunken M/T Solar 1 on Wednesday defended the vessel’s captain before the Board of Marine Inquiry (BMI), saying that Norberto Aguro is a “qualified master mariner,” ABS-CBN News reported.

This developed as officials of the company will be included in the Bureau of Immigration’s watch list.

Clemente Cancio of Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC) said oil tankers are much safer and easier to handle than vessels hauling chemicals. The company hired Aguro since he was an expert in manning chemical tankers, he added.

BMI questioned why 20 crewmen were aboard the vessel when it was limited to 16.

Cancio replied by saying that Petron Corp., the company that chartered Solar 1, required at least two surveyors for the cruise. The Solar 1 came from Limay, Bataan and was scheduled to bring its cargo of bunker oil to Mindanao when it sank off Guimaras.

Meanwhile, ANC News reported that the hold-order came from the Department of Justice that said officials of SMDC should be placed on the bureau’s list of people who are at risk of fleeing an ongoing government probe.

Dionision Z. Parulan, Gregorio M. Flores, Clemente GR. Cancio, Mototsugu Yamaguchi, Hiroyasu Yamaguchi, Tomoki Tsubomoto, Hiromi Irishika, Roberto D. Mena, Angelita S. Buenaventura have been put on the list for possible violations of the Clean Water Act, Domestic Philippine Act, Revised Penal Code, Brown Environmental Law, and the Anti-Dummy Law, Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez said records of the Articles of Incorporation and other records of the SMDC showed that majority of the incorporators of the company were Japanese.

At the same time, the task force created by Gonzalez has summoned Cancio; Nicasio Alcantara, chairman of Petron; Capt. Aguro; Vice Admiral Arthur Gosingan, Philippine Coast Guard Chief; and the crew of M/T Solar I – Herminio Renger, radioman; Jesse Angel, pumpman; Reynaldo Torio and Victorio Morados, oilers, to appear before the Department of Justice (DoJ) on Monday at 2 p.m.

(Click ABS-CBN News and INQ7.net for the full stories.)
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INTERESTING how fast the DOJ and Immigration bureau issued the hold-departure order in the Guimaras oil spill case, when both agencies turned the other way when a hold-departure order was being requested to prevent Jocjoc “fertilizer scam” Bolante from leaving the country during an ongoing Senate investigation.

Consistent rules and procedures is what this country needs not fools in the government.

Solar I still leaking; slick heading to Tubbataha

OIL continues to leak from the sunken tanker MT Solar I, a report submitted by the Japan Disaster Relief Team on Tuesday said.

The Japan Disaster Relief Team, composed of three Japan Coast Guard (JCG) experts and one JICA official, returned to Japan August 29 after concluding its examination and assessment of the Guimaras oil spill incident.

The assessment was made after a week-long operation in Guimaras Island from August 22 to 28, a press statement issued by the Japanese embassy said.

In its report, the team said that oil continues to leak out from the sunken tanker Solar-1.

The team did not say how much oil has leaked out although Philippine Coast Guard officials earlier said they believe that oil – about 500,000 to 700,000 liters – have leaked from the ruptured containers of the sunken vessel.

The report came a day before the arrival of a Japanese salvage ship – with a remotely operated underwater vehicle capable of conducting an underwater survey – in the Guimaras oil spill area.

The ship, called Shinsei Maru is expected in the Guimaras strait Wednesday night.

“The [oil] leak is continuous. [We have estimated that] 500,000 to 700,000 liters of oil have been spilled. That would be determined and confirmed once the [remote operated vehicle (ROV)] dives down to determine how many tankers have ruptured and how many liters of oil are still remaining in the vessel,” Coast Guard spokesman Joseph Coyme said at the weekly Fernandina Media Forum.

The figure is an increase from the Coast Guard’s initial estimate of 200,000 to 300,000 liters of oil that leaked out after the M/T Solar 1’s sinking on August 11, Coyme said. The vessel was carrying more than 1.8 million liters of oil when it sank.

Coyme said the oil slick has already affected about 3,000 families, seven coastal towns in Guimaras and Iloilo, 28 coastal barangays, 200 kilometers of coastline and 1,340 hectares of mangrove.

An ANC report said that the oil slick was breaking up and spreading to different areas in Western Visayas. The report said a portion of the spill is also heading toward Tubbataha Reef, which is located in the Sulu Sea, 98 nautical miles southeast of Puerto Princesa City in Palawan.

In Cebu City, environmentalist and lawyer Antonio Oposa said northern Cebu is now safe from the oil slick in Guimaras Island, according to a Sunstar report.

Oposa, head of the Visayan Sea Squadron and national environmental team leader of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, said that all the bunker oil in the sunken tanker has already seeped out.

His announcement that Bantayan Island is already safe was based on facts, he stressed, as radar satellite showed the direction of the spill.

(Click GMA News and ABS-CBN News for the full stories, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Reflections on a calamity

I NEED a passport to travel out of this country. I need a license to drive. My car must be registered so I can use it. If I tried to do any of these, without these documents, I could get into trouble.

How then does a tanker, fully laden with a hazardous cargo like fuel oil, receive clearance to leave port, in uncertain weather, when both its registration and the license of its captain have lapsed?

Collusion, you say. Is it possible that the shipowner and the company chartering the vessel have colluded? Maybe. But, will that be possible if the regulatory agents, whose job it is to inspect all vessels prior to departure, were not colluding as well?

And, if this happened with one fuel tanker leaving Bataan in early August, is it not possible that this same collusion may be happening in several sites, involving several corporations, ships, captains and regulatory agents, throughout the country?

The Guimaras spill is an environmental tragedy. The President says we now face a national calamity. She is right. The question is: “Is this calamity environmental? Or, at its very base, is this really a calamity of governance?”

The Philippine Coast Guard and the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) are the government agencies tasked to regulate ports and shipping. Among other things, they serve as a check-and-balance mechanism to ensure that laws are complied with and enforced. Ultimately, all these laws are created to serve and protect the nation and the millions of taxpayers who fund these agencies. When the Solar 1 was given clearance to leave Bataan, were our laws followed? And whose interests were served?

These thoughts disturb me. They make me wonder what the phrase “public service” means to us, both the governors and the governed. They make me wonder about the trillion pesos our lawmakers have budgeted to run our ship of state. They make me wonder about the many cases of graft and corruption that have been filed, but more than that, the many more that may never be discovered, filed and driven to a just conclusion. They make me think about those thousands of vehicles with red plates, emblazoned with the words “For Official Use Only” that many of us know are used for personal convenience, by “officials”.

I think about the millions of Filipinos who pay taxes for virtually every commodity they buy – from noodles, to cigarettes, to diesel fuel, to gin, to canned sardines – and still do not get the quality product they are paying for. And I wonder about the 25 million Filipinos who live on less than P100 per day.

We face a national calamity, no doubt. But all this goes way beyond Guimaras and the Visayan Seas. It is not merely environmental, it is systemic.

Yesterday, a Coast Guard officer was shown a satellite photograph that clearly showed a 50 kilometer oil slick in the Visayan Sea. The presence of the slick was verified that same day by three independent and credible private sources. The Coast Guard¹s reaction? No, there is no slick there.

A media person called me about the same photo. Her question? We want to know if you verified this slick. Why? The Coast Guard said it is not there.

If this is where we are today, we are in deep trouble.

Lorenzo Tan

(From INQ7.net, Aug. 28, 2006.)

From our mailbox…

GAWAD Kalinga’s number two man, Luis Oquiñena, called from Bacolod yesterday after coming from Guimaras. It seems GK will go to Guimaras a bit ahead of schedule because of the oil spill. It is now apparent that GK will be a potential force in any major disaster, as it is in any major slum upgrading. This imagery of GK is being conditioned into the minds of many by actual events and developments like Kalinga Luzon, Kalinga Leyte, and also Baseco.

Because of the oil spill, many coastal villages have no source of both food and income from the sea. Aside from any environmental work (cleaning up) which is not GK’s strong suit anyway, the main concern is to help feed thousands of people. Should there be any request from partners to help in this area, GK will work with the CFC (Couples for Christ) structure in Guimaras which has been set up to assist in relief work. Otherwise, GK moves into food production and community development – which is what we really want to do. I think we are already looking for places where we can be granted permission to build GK and also do food production work.

A multi-sectoral initiative in Cebu will be raising funds to help Guimaras. Some members are already partrners of GK in Cebu and it is probable that they will ask GK to combine efforts on the ground (our network and services with their funds). A few local companies and also Fil-Ams have indicated they want to be part of a more permanent GK intervention.

Boy Montelibano

(From Teddy M.)

What you can do

FOR those still thinking of ways to help Guimaras get out of the muck, you may help by supporting the Visayan Sea Squadron headed by environmentalist lawyer Antonio Oposa. The squadron has been at the forefront in the monitoring of the oil spill and clean-up operations of the resort island.

You may donate rubber boots and gloves and clinical masks to help protect the volunteers from the deadly contaminants in the oil sludge and its noxious fumes. The squadron will also accept chicken feathers and cut hair which can be used to help absorb the slick.

Donations may be dropped off at 12 Highland Drive, Blueridge A Katipunan, Quezon City or at the College of Fine Arts in UP Diliman.

You may also make donations and pledges in cash or in kind to help the poor residents of Guimaras survive this disaster. Help feed and clothe them by clicking on this web site called Project Sunrise . The site is a project of the provincial government of Guimaras in cooperation with the Canadian International Development Agency.

Cash donations may be deposited at any Land Bank of the Philippines branch to Account No. 1922-1000-35 (Provincial Government of Guimaras). A donation form may be downloaded from the site. I hope Land Bank management can do away with the usual inter-bank fees as a way of helping Guimaras recover.

Please give from the heart.

Muted response

By Ellen Tordesillas

My cousins, the Orendains, have a small beach resort in Guimbal, Iloilo and it is in danger of being ruined by the oil spill coming from MT Solar I that sank in the waters off Guimaras.

My cousin, Dolly O. Escobar, whose daughters, Marla and Carla manage Sunrise Beach (about 30 minutes away from Iloilo City), has been texting everybody last week to pray that the government do something to solve the problems that are endangering lives of people in Guimaras and Negros Occidental.

Dolly said the fumes and smell of oil can already be felt in Guimbal. Needless to say, business is down. With the strong winds and waves, they fear that it’s a matter of time before oil reaches their shores. To prevent that, the people in Guimbal are making booms containing feathers and hair to prevent the oil from reaching their shores.

Those are community efforts to alleviate the damage. There is the bigger task of cleaning up which should be the responsibility of the Petron, 40 percent owned by the government, and Sunshine Maritime Development Corporation.

A class suit by the affected communities of Iloilo should be pushed through to compel Petron and Sunshine Maritime to accept responsibility for the damage.

So far, the actuations of the government, Petron and Sunshine Maritime have been infuriating.

(Click Malaya for the full column, Aug. 30, 2006.)

Tourism chief belittles impact of oil spill

By Roderick T. dela Cruz

TOURISM Secretary Ace Durano yesterday said the oil slick infecting the waters and shores of several coastal towns in Guimaras will have minimal impact on international visitor arrivals to the Philippines.

“There are only 216 resort rooms in Guimaras province, which is a very small percentage of the country’s total resort room capacity,” Durano said.

Durano said the oil slick, caused by the sinking of Solar I tanker ship carrying 1.9 million liters in waters off Guimaras on Aug. 11, will not prevent the country from achieving its target of attracting three million foreign tourists in 2006.

“Guimaras is primarily a destination for domestic tourists. Overall, foreign visitor arrivals are not affected,” he said.

President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, who visited Guimaras on Monday, also noted that only seven of the 24 resorts in the island-province were affected by the oil spill, as she encouraged tourists to visit the other unaffected 17 resorts.

(Click M. Standard Today for the full story, Aug. 30, 2006.)

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BUT of course! As long as Cebu gets the bulk of the tourists, right Ace? Tsk, tsk, tsk.