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Wednesday, August 23, 2006
Oil slick ‘can hit seas off Cebu’
The oil slick from a sunken tanker off Guimaras Province is spreading and is threatening Cebu, an environmentalist said yesterday.
“It’s not a matter of projection; it’s a matter of fact. The southwest monsoon is pushing it (oil spill) up,” lawyer Antonio Oposa of the Visayan Sea Squadron and Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) national environmental team leader said.
Oposa told Sun.Star Cebu in a mobile phone interview yesterday that the area covered by the slick is already wide yet only 10 percent of the two million liters of bunker fuel has leaked from Solar I.
Bantayan Mayor Geralyn Escario said in a radio dyLA interview that Oposa called her attention to the possible spread of the oil slick to the seas of her island town.
The oil spill has reached the coasts of at least two towns in Iloilo province on the nearby island of Panay.
Commodore Alejandro Flora, Coast Guard Central Eastern Visayas District chief, shared Oposa’s view that the surface wind direction of the southwest monsoon will influence the flow of the oil spill.
“When it hits the shoreline, the oil spill will follow the contour of the land. The wind also directs its flow,” Flora told Sun.Star Cebu.
President Arroyo formed a task force to deal with the environmental disaster two weeks after the Solar I went down Aug. 11.
Iloilo Rep. Rolex Suplico urged the President to declare a state of calamity in the entire Western Visayas.
The Philippine Coast Guard also said the Petron-chartered tanker had sprung a new leak. The ship went down in bad weather off Guimaras.
Unsure
Only one of the ship’s 10 compartments is known to have burst so far, emptying its 50,000 gallons of industrial fuel oil into the sea in what has become one of the worst environmental catastrophes to hit the country.
With authorities unsure whether to try and refloat the vessel or suck out the remaining fuel, there is a race against time amid fears the water pressure could burst the remaining compartments at any time.
“The leak is 200 liters per hour and if the bulk of the two million liters of oil seeps out, my God, you will see the whole Visayan waters covered with oil and all the marine life will be dead,” Oposa said.
Oposa is in Iloilo with other officials of the IBP Cebu City chapter to conduct a fact-finding mission.
Environmental Management Board (EMB) 7 pollution investigation division chief Marcelino Tabuco said that if the spill reaches Cebu waters, it will spell disaster because the area between Negros and Cebu is deep.
P48 million
The oil slick is expected to cost P48 million in lost marine resources and displace 2,500 fisherfolk, Sen. Edgardo Angara said.
Japanese and American experts were scheduled to arrive in the country yesterday to help in cleanup efforts.
Petron is expecting another team it is hiring to arrive within the week.
The oil, which has taken on a tar-like consistency after “coagulating” with seawater, has reached the coasts of Ajuy and Concepcion towns, Philippine Coast Guard (PSG) Chief Admiral Arthur Gosingan said.
Suplico said the government could also include funds in the proposed P46.4-billion supplemental budget for the PCG and other agencies to effectively combat the oil spill.
“The Coast Guard is ill-equipped,” Suplico said. “It can deal with oil spills of this magnitude only with a first-aid response, likened to using a band-aid.”
Task Force Guimaras, created by Arroyo, includes the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC), PCG, the Health, Energy, Transportation and Communications, and Environment and Natural Resources departments.
“The forming of the task force is to formalize what had been happening on the ground and in order for government to have a plan for the medium and long term,” Defense Secretary and NDCC chairman Avelino Cruz said at a news conference.
‘Time bomb’
Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes acknowledged the situation is a “disaster in progress” that threatens the Philippines seas as long as the oil-laden Solar I, which is estimated to still hold more than a million liters, remains under water.
Greenpeace, which last week called the situation a “ticking time bomb,” warned the government Tuesday to prepare for long term damage over a wide area.
“The impact of this oil spill on the environment will linger for years, even decades. The government must learn from this disaster,” it said. (AIV/(AFP)/GC)
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (August 23, 2006 issue)
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