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Sunday, October 08, 2006
Priest calls for boycott of Petron's oil products
MANILA -- In an apparent bid to pressure Petron Philippines from hastening the cleanup of oil slick in Guimaras coastlines, a Catholic Church priest asked Saturday the people to boycott the oil firm's petroleum products.
"The urgent call of retrieving or recovering the oil slick seems to have fallen on deaf ear. The nuclear bomb is still lying there under the sea," said Monsignor Melito Oso, social action director of the archdiocese of Jaro.
Oso said he does not believe that the filing of a case against Petron will make the oil company speed up the retrieval operation of M/T Solar 1 "that was sitting like a bomb under the sea and ready to explode anytime."
The MT Solar carrying 2.1 million liters of bunker fuel owned by Petron sank off the southern coast of Guimaras last Aug. 11.
"Boycott! (and) perhaps the court cases together with our personal contribution to boycott Petron will drive home the message," he said.
The priest said if the people give Petron zero sales, perhaps they will be forced to do recovery mission.
He said their calls to boycott the oil firm "is not a threat, but a promise that they intend to do to compel Petron to immediately complete the cleaning of oil slick in the waters of Guimaras."
The monsignor's brother, Iloilo Provincial Board Member Domingo Oso earlier filed a resolution "encouraging Ilonggos to boycott Petron products" if it does not re-float the vessel or siphon the unspilled oil in M/T Solar 1.
"I've seen the sincerity and effort of the corporation to contain the spill, but there was no assurance of totally solving the problem, which is to re-float the sunken vessel which they chartered or siphoning the remaining 1.8 million liters," the board member said.
Petron asked that they be given until November to properly act on the problem but the board members find it too long a timeline that the ship might blow up and the spill to totally contaminate the Visayan Sea.
Meanwhile, the Occupation Safety and Health Center is still monitoring the long-term effects of the chemicals encountered by workers involved in the cleanup of the oil spill.
OSHC Executive Director Dulce Estrella-Gust said there are 11 hazardous chemicals that the 1,500 workers may be exposed to through inhalation, skin and eye contact or ingestion of the spilled bunker fuel and the fumes caused by the oil's deterioration and reaction to seawater and air.
The chemicals are benzene, benzo(a)pyrene, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, ethyl benzene, hydrogen sulfide, methyl tert-butyl ether, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, sulfuric acid, toluene and xylenes.
These substances have varying effects range from skin irritation and dizziness to organ malfunction and cancer. (Sunnex)
(October 8, 2006 issue)
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