P100-Million Bond for Oil Cleanup Sought From Petron, Shipper

Despite Petron Corp.’s commitment to support a cleanup, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources has started looking into the liability of the oil company and Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC) for the massive oil spill in Guimaras Strait.

The Philippine Coast Guard is contemplating a more drastic measure. Frustrated over the slow response to the oil spill on the part of Petron and Sunshine Maritime, PCG station chief Cmdr. Harold Jarder said the PCG would require the two companies to post a bond of P100 million to pay for the cleanup. Petron and Sunshine Maritime should also pay for the fuel expenses of Coast Guard ships, which had reached P10 million in just a week of cleanup operations, Jarder said.

“No amount of cleanup will suffice. We can’t sleep as long as the tanker is still there,” Jarder, on-scene commander in the cleanup operations, said during a meeting with officials of the province and city of Iloilo yesterday. Initial reports have it that the oil spill, the second in the country in less than a year, could cause massive pollution in violation of Republic Act No. 9275 or the Clean Water Act.

“There is a violation, of course, but when you file the case, you have to have complete documents. It cannot be half-baked … We’re still assessing the damage because it could be more than what we see now,” Armi Jane Borje, environment undersecretary for legal affairs, told the Inquirer yesterday. The Clean Water Act, passed in 2004, prohibits the “discharging, depositing or causing to be deposited (of) material directly or indirectly into the water bodies or along the margins of any surface water … which could cause water pollution or impede the natural flow in the water body.”

RA 9275 imposes a penalty of P10,000 to P200,000 for every day of violation, on top of possible closure or suspension of operations of erring parties. Failure to undertake cleanup operations “willfully or through gross negligence” is punishable by 2 to 4 years’ imprisonment and a fine of P50,000 to P100,000 per day of violation, according to Section 28 of RA 9275. If the failure to clean up results in “serious injury or loss of life and/or irreversible contamination of surface, ground, coastal and marine water,” the violators could be punished with imprisonment of 6 to 12 years and a fine of P500,000 for each day that the contamination continues.

“They cannot run away from the case. The case is on top of the damage, but what the Secretary (Angelo T. Reyes) wants to focus on right now is remediation,” Borje said.
Borje said the DENR still needed to review the contract between Petron and SMDC to see which party was liable for violating the Clean Water Act. Petron hired Sunshine Maritime, owner of the MT Solar I, to transport 2 million liters of bunker fuel oil from its refinery in Limay, Bataan, to Zamboanga del Sur. The tanker sank off Guimaras on Aug. 11 and has released at least 200,000 liters of the fuel into the sea.

The DENR in Western Visayas has gathered soft sea surface and surface water samples from the affected areas to determine the extent of pollution in the waters of Guimaras. Guimaras Gov. Joaquin Nava said the oil spill had affected or damaged 15 sq km of coral reefs, 50 ha of seaweed plantations, more than 200 km of coastline, 1,000 ha of marine reserves and two resort islands.

State of Calamity - Environment watchdog Greenpeace yesterday called on the Arroyo administration to immediately declare a state of calamity in the areas affected by the oil spill. In a statement, Greenpeace campaigner Beau Baconguis said the origin of the oil slick was located at 7.3 nautical miles, or 11.7 km southwest, of Unisan, the southernmost isle in the group of islands forming Guimaras. Baconguis was aboard the Greenpeace ship MY Esperanza that arrived at the oil spill Ground Zero in Guimaras Strait Sunday morning to start assessing the damage caused by the oil spill. He said the oil slick had started as a thin strip but fanned out across the Guimaras Strait as it came closer to the islands of Guimaras and Negros. Thick oil globules were seen floating toward smaller islands and reefs of Guimaras, he said. “This is only about 10 percent of the oil contained in the sunken tanker but it had already reached a very wide area and devastation was extensive,” the campaigner said. Greenpeace has demanded that Petron be held accountable for damage to the environment and for economic losses in these areas. Scientists and environmental experts joined Greenpeace in its voyage to the site of the disaster.

Long-Term Effects - Some who went onshore saw two mangrove areas near the Taklong marine sanctuary covered in oil sludge and already showing signs of death, Greenpeace said. Janet Cotter of the Greenpeace Science Unit in the United Kingdom said the oil spill would have a profound impact on the environment and people. “Although the visible pollution can be cleaned up to a certain extent, the long-term toxic effects of the oil pollution can kill mangroves and corals, impacting the rich marine biodiversity found in this area and affecting people’s livelihoods for years to come,” he said. Petron has told the DENR, other agencies and nongovernment organizations like the World Wildlife Fund-Philippines at a meeting on Sunday that the company was planning to suck out the remaining bunker fuel before re-floating the sunken vessel, which is 900 meters under the sea, beyond the reach of divers.

Dismayed - The Philippine Coast Guard would ask officials of Petron and Sunshine Maritime to submit their action plan for the retrieval of the sunken tanker. “We are dismayed that they have no concrete, viable action plans yet for the retrieval of the tanker more than a week after it sank,” PCG spokesperson Lt. Commander Joseph Coyme said. “What is the company they have contracted? When will the recovery of the tanker start?” Coyme said the PCG would send a letter today advising Petron and Sunshine Maritime Development of the ultimatum.

Water Samples - The water samples taken by the DENR regional office have been submitted to a laboratory in Iloilo for examination. The results will be available in one or two weeks, Environment Undersecretary Francisco Bravo said. “We cannot go and decide without the facts yet. It will take one or two weeks before we get the results,” said Bravo, who chairs the Pollution Adjudication Board (PAB). The results of the water sampling and analysis would be submitted by the DENR regional director to the PAB, along with its recommendations. The PAB would then deliberate on the case and forward its own recommendation to the environment secretary for final decision. The biggest penalty imposed so far by the government for violation of the Clean Water Act was against Australian mining firm Lafayette Philippines Inc. It was fined P10.4 million for two mine tailings spills that caused fish kills in Rapu-Rapu island, Albay province.

Senate Probe - In the Senate, Sen. Jamby Madrigal is seeking a Senate investigation of the oil spill and the liability of Petron. She said Petron could not simply wash its hands of any liability in the disaster. A Petron spokesperson said on television that the company had no legal liability in the oil spill but had taken the “moral responsibility” of attending to its cleanup. “Petron management was negligent and they should be fined for this appalling incident. It is morally and legally reprehensible for them to do otherwise,” Madrigal said in a statement. The senator said she would file a bill requiring the use of tankers with double-hulls in the transport of crude and petroleum products and banning them from passing through protected marine sites. For his part, Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan asked what the National Disaster Coordinating Council has been doing about the oil spill. He said the absence of the NDCC from the picture created the perception that the government was inept and helpless in responding to the problem.

Reports by Carla P. Gomez and Jhunnex Napallacan, Inquirer Visayas; Delfin T. Mallari Jr., Inquirer Southern Luzon; and Juliet Labog-Javellana and Leila B. Salaverria in Manila, INQ7Express