Real and present danger

In last week’s issue, I wrote about how the recent twin oil depot disasters that happened in India and Puerto Rico, not too widely apart by the way, have awakened some people to the real and present danger that stares us in the face here at home.

After that issue came out, a lot of people approached me at a recent dinner party I attended, all too suddenly wary and keenly aware of the ticking time bomb in our midst. It became a pretty animated discussion as more and more people got drawn into the widening circle.

As I told those who cared to listen, this scenario has been with us for several decades now, and though we have not had the misfortune of a serious disaster, we can’t be lackadaisical about the whole thing. Someone in the group even volunteered that a few years ago; he remembered a serious gas leak in Pandacan. Though my not too trusty memory can’t seem to remember the incident and which oil company was indeed involved, it wasn’t supposedly too long ago for the many folks who were affected from that area to forget the anguish and pain of that unfortunate incident.

When the debate was still raging about whether to retain the depots of Petron and Shell in Pandacan, several civic groups lobbied with Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, prodding him to cut them loose and transfer them to far away Batangas. I remember having sent a crew to the kind Mayor’s office for an interview in order to get his views on this issue for the business section of our TV show Business & Leisure. Mayor Lim agonized over it for a while, but was quick and decisive, and if I may add, unrelenting as well when push came to shove and he had to give an official stand. He had several economic issues on one hand which weighed heavily on the welfare of his constituents, and the potential dangers of an aging oil depot which, he hoped, would remain as just potentials in the years to come.

As I remember it, he cited the loss of income of thousands of families who work in these depots. He shared that many of the current workers of Petron and Shell have had their parents and grandparents working in the very same depot. For the record, Shell has been here since 1914, while Petron had their set-up three years later, in 1917. Chevron, the mother company of Caltex here, pioneered in 1907, though as everyone knows, they have downgraded their operations here and totally gave up their local refineries for economic reasons. So, their stake in the Pandacan depot is substantially reduced and they are now operating there merely as stockpilers. The two major players remain-Pilipinas Shell and Petron.

If indeed these oil companies move to Batangas (or any other faraway place for that matter), it would not be feasible to hire workers from Manila. As the top city executive, he has also weighed in the tax revenues from these companies, the loss of which will surely impact his numerous ongoing pro-poor projects.

Weighing in also in his crucial decision to retain the oil depots in Pandacan were the issues raised by the Dept. of Energy and the Department of Transportation & Communication. Our Energy czar raised the specter of a possible serious disruption of oil supply should the depots be removed to the provincial areas. The considerable distance, aggravated by the perennial dire traffic situation, would most certainly have an impact on regular supply, they argued. Compounding this further is the resultant increase in costs to be incurred by the oil companies because of time consumed and longer travel. Guess again who is going to shoulder the added operational costs. You can bet they are not going to be absorbed by the oil refineries. The estimate for this margin alone is anywhere from P2 to P3 per liter, which is quite hefty for the consumer to absorb.

As for the DOTC, their main arguments centered on the effect of this relocation on the already problematic traffic situation and the effect of the presence of these humongous hauling trucks on our national roads. With 500 trucks pounding our roads with heavy loads of gasoline on a daily basis, I can see their point.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) even had their own inputs to the problem of relocating the depots. The daily threats of hijacks of these hauling trucks on desolate highways late at night can pose a serious security risk which would require them to deploy additional security.

Given all these, I guess I know where the kind mayor is coming from in his decision to retain the Pandacan depots. It is a painful decision, knowing how things can go either way in matters of physical safety. Because of the recent twin disasters in India and Puerto Rico, there is a renewed interest in these depots and the dangers they continue to pose, and there is a need to stanch this lingering anxiety because it is gnawing at a growing number of people. And we’re not only talking of those immediately involved, those facing imminent danger everyday of their lives by simply being there and living there, in the same vicinity as those huge oil depots. The Metro Manila residents are also keenly watching, not from an entirely safe distance as deadly fumes and irreversible environmental damages are nothing to sneeze at when it happens.  

Being well informed makes us aware of these potential dangers, so now is the time to put safeguards and catch nets in place, not when tensions have come to a tipping point. The oil companies have time and again made loud chest-thumping proclamations about the highest safety standards they employ to make these depots as fool-proof safe as they possibly can and the surrounding areas habitable, with the residents not losing sleep over the potential hazards their families face. When wariness rubs up against smug confidence, it is time to put the chips on the table to be counted.

If the Pandacan residents can sleep with confident certainty that they are fully covered in case of untoward incidents that could endanger their lives and property, I guess the first line of hurdles can be safely tucked away. In other words, the oil companies should put their money where their mouth is-if they are a hundred per cent sure that enough safety precautions and measures are in place to preclude the possibility of serious accidents, they should be able to put the appropriate guarantees in place. These guarantees should specify in no uncertain terms that the Pandacan residents and maybe even residents of nearby communities if they are so affected will get fully recompensed for loss of lives, damage to property, medical bills, etc. resulting from serious accidents at or caused by these depots.

I am certain that Puerto Rico and India thought all the while that they had installed all possible safety precautions imaginable in any modern-day oil depot, yet look at what happened. The fact that the nearest community was several hundred miles away precluded serious damage. We can’t say the same for Pandacan-and the involved oil companies remain mum on the issue.

Now’s the perfect time to jump in

Seminars and workshops designed to make the uninitiated benefit from the expected rebound of the country’s real estate sector are being regularly conducted by Asia Pacific Realty. Those who have been there or are still in the business and wish to have a wider array of properties to offer are also encourage to come and join.

Asia Pacific Realty has also announced the “soon to open” website with a smorgasbord of development projects that can serve every need of the market from retirement homes, residential and commercial condominiums of varied economic budgets, lots, houses and even resort homes all over the Philippines.

Watch out for the opening of www.philippinerealtylistings.com, the one-stop website for anyone on the hunt for any kind of property in the country for any kind of budget.

If you wish to be counted, the numbers to call is 571-1928 and ask for Fe for the schedule of the seminars and workshops.    

Mabuhay!!! Be proud to be a Filipino.

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