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Tuesday, August 29, 2006
Cebu 'not out of danger yet' from oil spill
CEBU CITY -- Cebuanos should remain vigilant even after the pronouncement that the oil slick in Guimaras Island has veered away from Cebu Province, said Governor Gwendolyn Garcia Monday.
The towns of Madridejos and Bantayan in northern Cebu have already prepared improvised booms to help stem the flow of the spill into their waters.
Lawyer Antonio Oposa, head of the Visayan Sea Squadron and national environmental team leader of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, announced early last week that the oil spill from a sunken tanker will reach Bantayan Island in 10 days.
This statement prodded the town officials and residents to prepare for the worst.
But last Saturday, Oposa made another pronouncement that northern Cebu is already safe from the oil slick because the current has changed direction, taking traces toward Masbate instead of Bantayan Island.
He also suggested that the spill booms that the two towns have made should be donated to Guimaras.
But Garcia said this will only be done "as soon as we are very sure we are out of the danger zone."
The direction of the slick moved from a northeasterly to easterly direction, threatening southern Negros Occidental, Iloilo Coast Guard chief Commander Harold Jarder said.
Jarder said an aerial survey showed the slick was thick in some sections and came in several long streaks, some stretching a half kilometer long.
Cauayan town in southern Negros Occidental is home to beach resorts and the Danjugan Island Marine Sanctuary, an important resting place for migratory birds.
At least two more towns have been polluted by the massive slick from the worst-ever Philippines oil spill, the Coast Guard said Monday.
Thick gobs of black oil have reached beaches and fishing areas in the towns of Ajuy and Concepcion on Panay Island, some 80 kilometers north of the site where the tanker, Vice Admiral Arturo Gosingan said.
MT Solar I, carrying about two million liters of bunker oil, sank off Guimaras last August 11 in rough seas, then began spilling oil that has affected a 220-kilometer stretch of coastline.
The Guimaras Provincial Government has reported that more than 26,000 people-directly and indirectly dependent on fishing-have been affected.
Australia and France have pledged to help the Philippines clean up a massive oil spill from a sunken tanker, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo said Monday.
Arroyo thanked the United States and Japan for sending experts to help deal with the spill, which has contaminated resorts, marine reserves, seaweed farms and fishing communities on the southern coast of Guimaras island and outlying areas.
Officials will appeal for more foreign assistance, she said, adding that Australia and France have offered help. She did not elaborate on the specific aid that both countries might provide.
Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes said the tanker has been located about 700 meters under the sea. Officials will wait for a Japanese salvage ship to arrive later this week and examine the tanker with a remote-controlled probe before deciding what to do next, he said.
If the tanker still has oil in it, the government may siphon off the remaining bunker fuel because it could break apart if lifted, Reyes said, adding that entombing the vessel under the seabed will be too costly.
"We have to do this quick because some people say it's a disaster again waiting to happen," Reyes told ABS-CBN television.
Environmental groups, including the World Wildlife Fund, have said the oil slick has spread to the Visayan Sea, around 125 kilometers away from the original site of the spill.
But Gosingan denied the spill had reached that far, saying that satellite images of the area had picked up what is called a thin "oil sheen" that has already dispersed.
Town officials and residents in Madridejos and Bantayan, Cebu have made indigenous booms out of bamboo poles, rice straw and other materials to fight the spill.
Bantayan Mayor Geralyn Escario was emotional when interviewed over radio dyLA because she felt that the pronouncement had dampened the enthusiasm of the people to continue preparing for the worst.
Madridejos Mayor Lety Mancio, for her part, said they will continue to prepare for the possibility of the spill to reach their waters.
For the two mayors, as long as the vessel with the bunker fuel is still under the sea and continues to leak oil, their towns are still not safe.
Last Saturday, Oposa went to Bantayan with his team and said there were no sightings of oil sheen.
Sun.Star Cebu failed to get Oposa's comment Monday. Several calls were made to his phone but he did not answer.
President Arroyo was scheduled to visit Guimaras again yesterday to check on the progress of a large-scale cleanup and steps taken by officials to safeguard the health of villagers living near contaminated shores and help them find other sources of income.
"I want to make sure that the oil still gushing out of the vessel would be stopped, the remaining oil removed and this disaster would end," Arroyo said.
A top executive of Petron Corp., the country's largest oil refiner and owner of the leaking fuel, told a Senate inquiry that his company has helped clean up 62 kilometers of Guimaras coastline by hiring more than 1,000 villagers.
Jose Jesus Laurel, Petron vice president for legal and external affairs, said the massive cleanup could be completed in 30-45 days. (MBG/AP/AFP)
(August 29, 2006 issue)
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