Petro money won't improve economy?

CEBU - Representatives from oil-producing countries Malaysia and Indonesia claimed that presence of oil-producing companies will not help in the country’s economy.

“Malaysia is a petroleum exporting country,” Teh Chung Hong of Malaysia-based Pesticide Action Network–Asia and the Pacific said. “Forty percent of our income is from petroleum. But despite this our country still imposed a forty percent increase in the price of oil. Malaysia’s experience is that petroleum money will not bring benefit to people, even for oil-producing countries,” he said.

He further cited the examples of Sarawak and Teranganu, which produce most of Malaysia’s oil. He said that these two states are also Malaysia’s poorest.

In addition to economic issues, lawyer Gloria Estenzo-Ramos of the Save Tañon Strait Citizens Movement, enlightened that oil drilling is a violation of the concept of social justice as provided by the Constitution; and added that the fisherfolk should have the supreme right to use the fishing grounds.

Such reactions came up after an international fact-finding body, of which Pesticide Action Network is a part of, recently visited communities affected by the offshore oil and gas exploration of the Department of Energy and Australian company, NorAsian Energy Limited, and revealed that the exploration will be detrimental to the livelihood of the fisherfolk in the area.

Vince Cinches, executive director of the Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center Inc., said that because of the strong opposition from local governments in Bohol and the affected communities, NorAsian was forced to transfer its base of operation in Cebu mid of last year.

Cinches, also the co-convenor of the environmental group STSCM, said that “Cebuanos should not permit what the Boholanos have rejected.”

Meanwhile, Paulita Destor of Bol-anong Kahugpungan sa mga Kabus nga Mananagat (Bokkana-Bohol) said that the exploration in the waters of the Cebu-Bohol Strait should be stopped as this would destroy the rich marine resources of the strait. This in turn would further bring the fisherfolk deeper into poverty.

Cinches revealed that in all communities they visited in Pinamungajan, Aloguinsan, Argao and Sibonga towns, there is a 70 to 80 percent reduction in fish catch.

Because of the reduction in income, children of many fisherfolk have stopped schooling, while others are getting sick because of low nutrition intake.

“You should keep the oil underground and have fisherfolk their way to live,” said Andry Wijaya of Jatam-Indonesia and Oil Watch Southeast Asia (Indonesia).

Cinches also said that Cebuanos should not wait for scientific studies to be made for this claim to be substantiated as the experience of the fisherfolk is enough evidence to prove the ill effects of the survey.

In response, Antonio Labios, regional director of the DOE-Visayas Field Office, said that the claims of the fisherfolk regarding the reduction in fish catch is yet to be validated and substantiated by scientific studies. — Ritche T. Salgado/MEEV (THE FREEMAN)