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Thursday, August 24, 2006
Slick to hit Cebu 'in 10 to 14 days'
CEBU CITY -- An oceanologist projected that in 10 to 14 days the oil spill in Guimaras Island will reach northern Cebu waters.
Science and Technology Secretary Estrella Alabastro echoed the view of Rex Baleña, who holds a doctorate in oceanology from the University of Hawaii and who visited the site.
Alabastro, in a briefing of the Task Force Guimaras in Malacañang, said scientists have observed that the slick is moving northward and could hit Bantayan Island, if it is not quickly blocked.
Madridejos Mayor Lety Mancio is already taking action. She believes the oil slick will make its way to her town in Bantayan Island in four days.
This morning, the municipality of Madridejos will be distributing bamboo poles where coconut husks, dagami (hay), corn stalks can be attached.
Fishermen in the town already committed to help put the poles at sea to help prevent the oil spill from ruining their main fishing ground called "Bungtod," Mancio told Sun.Star in a phone interview Wednesday night.
She said this is their immediate response to the possible disaster. On Saturday, she will meet with lawyer Antonio Oposa, head of the Visayan Sea Squadron and Integrated Bar of the Philippines national environmental team leader, to map out long-term plans.
Of the three towns in Bantayan Island, Madridejos was identified as the first one that may get hit by oil spill from Guimaras because of its open seas.
Negros island is between Guimaras and Cebu but the current, aided by the southwest monsoon, can carry the slick further to the Visayan Sea.
Nine out of 14 barangays in Madridejos are in the coast and 90 percent of the residents rely on fishing as their main source of income.
Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr., chairman of the National Disaster Coordinating Council and head of Task Force Guimaras, said he has asked the Coast Guard and officials of Petron Corp. to guard the northern side of Guimaras Strait to ensure that the slick does not move out of the area.
Cruz said booms and skimmers will be used to keep the oil in the Guimaras Strait and prevent it from reaching the shorelines of islands in the Visayas. He said the National Mapping and Resources Information Authority noted a very thin film of bunker oil moving northward.
President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo released P20 million to augment the calamity funds of affected provinces and help prevent the slick from reaching the shorelines. Of the amount, P10 million will go to Guimaras and P5 million each to Iloilo and Negros Occidental.
The Cebu Provincial Government will also give out P5 million to the Province of Guimaras.
Governor Gwendolyn Garcia gave the instruction to the budget officer before she left for Jakarta, Indonesia last Tuesday.
She said it is better to just give financial assistance, as the officials of Guimaras know best what they need and how to spend it.
Cruz said a total of 3,700 families have suffered from the oil spill.
Japanese and US experts are helping efforts to contain "a looming ecological time bomb."
The authorities have been struggling to get help since the Solar I tanker sank off Guimaras last August 11 and discharged 50,000 gallons of industrial oil into the pristine seas.
They are now trying to decide whether to refloat the vessel or instead siphon off the roughly 450,000 gallons of oil still in the ship, which is sitting on the seabed.
The Cebu-based Coast Guard (CG) already sent its Marine Environment Protection Unit, spill boom and chemical dispersant to help contain and remove the oil slick in Guimaras.
Cebu CG Chief Manolito Malig-on required Bantayan CG Detachment Commander Temoteo Orevillo to update them of any development in the island.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III, meanwhile, is looking into the death of Romeo Dalida, a fisherman from Nueva Valencia town in Guimaras who reportedly suffered cardio-respiratory arrest from inhaling the fumes of the oil slick.
Duque said health advisories are being given to residents living near the coastlines to prevent them from exposing themselves to the slick.
The spill is now off Iloilo's northern towns of Ajuy and Concepcion, which are part of the Visayan Sea.
Oposa suggested that the government should pay volunteers for every liter of oil removed from the sea.
"It's an alternative to the lack of equipment and to compensate the fishermen for their loss of livelihood," he said.
A Manila-based group of fishermen has urged oil giant Petron Corp. to compensate fishermen in Guimaras Island and in Negros Occidental of their loss brought by the spill.
The Pambansang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) justified a demand for a P10 billion economic aid because the marginal fishermen are losing between P3 million and P5 million a day or roughly between P30 million and P50 million since Friday last week.
But Virginia Ruivivar, Petron's manager in public affairs, dismissed the demand, including reports from a national daily that Coast Guard required Petron and the shipper Sunshine Maritime to post a bond of P100 million for the clean up and another P10 million for the Coast Guard vessels fuel expenses.
"Petron is not under any legal or contractual obligation to set aside P10 billion in economic aid or to post a P100-million bond to pay for cleanup as under pertinent Philippine Coast Guard circulars, it is the spiller who is primarily responsible for conducting cleanup operations with the supervision of the Coast Guard," Petron said in a disclosure to the Philippine Stock Exchange.
Ruivivar invoked CG's circular that mandates the spiller as the primary responsible to conduct clean-up operations.
She said being a mere cargo owner, Petron has no part in the operation of Solar I nor did it cause the spill. (Sunnex/AFP/AIV/GC)
(August 24, 2006 issue)
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