Oil vessels to be banned from Visayan Sea

INAMPALUGAN, Guimaras — Shipping vessels carrying oil and hazardous chemicals will soon be banned from cruising the Visayan Sea to protect it from catastrophic oil spills like the one that befell Guimaras island.

"The Visayan Sea is an ecologically sensitive area and can be considered the most precious," Tourism Secretary Joseph Ace Durano explained.

According to Durano, President Arroyo has ordered the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) to identify new sea-lanes for oil tankers and other vessels with dangerous loads in a week’s time.

He admitted that the new sea route would be longer but the oil companies welcome the proposal "because in the end, it will still be cheaper than paying millions of pesos due to oil spill."

The Task Force Guimaras, headed by Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, has approved the establishment of the new sea lanes.

Mrs. Arroyo presided over a National Disaster Coordinating Council meeting here and checked on the effect of the oil spill on the beach resorts in the province, following reports on the drastic drop in the tourism business in the province.

Durano said Guimaras island generated P25 million in tourism revenues in 2005. The cancelled bookings following the oil spill represent about P3.5 million in lost revenues.

Meanwhile, the massive cleanup of affected seashores in the island province continues.

At a press conference in Iloilo City, Malou Erni of Petron Foundation said that as of Aug. 28, they have already cleaned a total of 80 kilometers of affected shorelines. Three barangays in Nueva Valencia town were also declared "oil-slick free."

Erni said they expect the cleanup operations to be over in 30 to 45 days.

So far, 220 kilometers of coastline, 454 hectares of mangroves and 54 hectares of seaweed farms were coated with oil films of up to four inches, according to Iloilo Gov. JC Rahman Nava.

Shipping company Aboitiz Transport Systems Corp. has donated 100 containers of oil dispersant valued at P500,000 for the Guimaras oil spill cleanup.

Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) regional executive director Celso Loriega received the oil dispersant from Col. Clarence Martinez, security manager of Aboitiz, in Mandaue City in Cebu.

The oil dispersant was immediately loaded onto a Navy ship bound for Guimaras last Friday.

The sunken MT Solar I tanker continues to leak oil into the sea but the ongoing treatment using dispersants is deemed effective in preventing more oil from reaching the shoreline, the Japan Disaster Relief team reported yesterday.

The team, composed of three experts from the Japan Coast Guard and one from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), recently concluded its weeklong examination and assessment of the Guimaras oil spill.

They noted that the manual cleanup of the affected seashores should be continued but workers should use protected gear as gloves, rubber boots and masks to mitigate health risks.

As this developed, the Japanese salvage ship Shinsei Maru, which was commissioned by Petron Corp. to re-float the sunken tanker, is expected to arrive in Guimaras on Wednesday afternoon.

"It is encountering up to one-meter high waves, so that explains the delay," Petron’s spokesman Carlos Tan said.

Shinsei Maru is equipped with a remotely operated vehicle that can go down to as deep as 2,000 meters under the sea.

Legal claims, suits

Petron announced yesterday that it has scheduled a series of workshops to teach those affected by the oil spill on how to file claims.

Tan said the Protection and Indemnity Club (P&I Club) and its partner, the International Oil Population Fund (IOPF), assumed its obligation of providing compensation to those affected by the oil spill.

The P&I Club is a global association of ship owners who had agreed to provide insurance for members against risks arising from the operation of their ships.

According to Tan, the Sunshine Maritime Development Corp. (SMDC), which owns the sunken MT Solar I, is a member of the P&I Club and the IOPF. The insurance coverage is up to $300 million to cover compensation for damages to property, cleanup of both sea and onshore, economic losses on the tourism and fishing sectors and rehabilitation of damaged environment.

However, a coalition of national fisherfolk federations in the country is looking at the possibility of filing a case against Petron and SMDC.

The Kilusang Mangingisda (KM) said that aside from the two companies, legal sanctions should also be slapped against the PCG and the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina).

KM national chairman Ruperto Aleroza said the PCG should be similarly blamed for allowing the vessel to sail despite the poor weather condition while Marina should be held responsible for approving the ship’s papers without taking into consideration the vessel’s seaworthiness.

The fisherfolk are now discussing with a group of international environmental lawyers on the possibility of filing a case before local and international courts.

"Corporate crime and accountability should not go unpunished and more so in the case of an oil giant like Petron," Aleroza said. — With Katherine Adraneda, Pia Lee-Brago, Ronilo Ladrido Pamonag