Oil firms set to leave Pandacan

MANILA, Philippines - The three major oil companies are preparing to leave Pandacan but are waiting for the final word from the Supreme Court to reconsider its decision allowing all local government units to single them out and evict them through selective and arbitrary spot zoning ordinances.

In a compliance report filed with Manila’s Regional Trial Court yesterday, the oil firms said they have started looking for alternative areas that “offer the same high supply efficiency, security and safety as the existing Pandacan terminals.”

But they said the process of where to eventually transfer is “severely hampered by the long unresolved issues on arbitrary spot zoning by local governments (i.e., selective and/or discriminatory zoning)…”

The compliance report was part of the High Court’s order upholding Manila Ordinance 8027 that singled out the Pandacan depot by reclassifying it from industrial to commercial, and evicting the oil companies for fear it might be a terrorist target.

The oil companies have asked the court to reconsider its decision, saying their 84 depots all over the country would be at the mercy of any local government.

They said that the relocation of the Pandacan depot alone would require them to use an additional 10,500 trucks per month to deliver to areas in and around Metro Manila, creating more traffic.

Each of these trucks, the National Government through the Department of Energy, said as it joined the case, is a prospective terrorist target as well.

It argued that the National Government through the DOE has the authority over oil depots through Republic Act 7638 which created the department and tasked it to ensure adequate fuel supply at the most reasonable cost.

The DOE said in its memorandum to the High Court: “Any…local legislation that frustrates (this) state policy…may not be countenanced…The cogent response to threats of terrorism is not paralysis of life nor the extinguishment of economic activity but the adoption of means to check them.”

It added that “vest(ing) local government units unbridled discretion to enact ‘spot zoning’ ordinances...(could result in) the forced closure and relocation of not only the oil industry but other industries as well.”

The oil industry said “if the location of all depots… is left to the control and discretion of local governments, utter chaos and mischief will result…(and will) relegate the state policy of continuous supply… (as) inferior to the zoning policies of local governments.”