CBCP seeks help for oil spill victims

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) called on the faithful yesterday to extend all possible help to communities in Western Visayas affected by the oil spill caused by the sinking of a fuel tanker off Guimaras island on Aug. 11.

CBCP president Archbishop Angel Lagdameo said it would be a Christian act for people, especially those who are not liable for the environmental catastrophe, to help the oil spill victims.

"We may not be responsible but we can reach out immediately to affected families of affected barangays in terms of material help because they have lost their livelihood," said Lagdameo, who heads the archdiocese of Jaro in the province of Iloilo, where some coastal towns have already been affected by the spill.

Lagdameo said his archdiocese has already initiated efforts to help affected families through its Diocesan Social Action Center (JASAC) and the Jaro Archdiocesan Pastoral Secretariat (JAPS).

"Let us be in solidarity with them through whatever organized help we can extend to them," appealed the CBCP head. "As one ‘Body of Christ,’ the tragedy suffered by one part is felt too by the entire body."

The oil spill started on Aug. 11, when the fuel tanker MT Solar I sank off Guimaras island while en route to Zamboanga City to deliver two million liters of bunker oil owned by Petron Corp.

Guimaras was immediately put under a "state of calamity" following what authorities called the country’s worst oil spill.

"The causes of this tragedy need to be fully and honestly investigated in order that justice may be served," Lagdameo added.

Lagdameo aired his appeal after meeting with residents of the worst hit areas, particularly the town of La Paz, and saw fisherfolk scraping a shore slick with crude oil. He said sand, stones, wood, seaweed and mangroves have been blackened by bunker fuel.

The Archdiocese of Jaro covers Iloilo and Guimaras, where 92 percent of the islands’ 2.7 million people are Catholic.

Greenpeace, a known international environment organization, said the government must hold Petron and its partners accountable for the damage to marine and coastal ecosystems and for the rehabilitation of these areas.

"The scale of this oil spill may turn out to be even larger than the Semirara oil spill last year and it threatens at least three marine reserves in Visayas," Greenpeace said in a statement.

Fr. Maloney Gotera, parish priest of St. Vincent Ferrer Parish in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras and Vicar Forane of the St. Bartholomew Vicariate, said most of their parishioners volunteered for the cleanup drive because they are afraid of losing their livelihood.

"Food is the biggest problem now because they are not allowed to go fishing," Gotera said.

He said various individuals and groups have started to respond generously to the tragedy, which may cause long-term damage to the environment and livelihoods of the people affected by the oil spill.

As of Aug. 20, a report from the Jaro archdiocese showed that 11 villages were affected by the oil spill: La Paz, San Roque, Dolores, Tando, Lucmayan, Cabalagnan, Panobolon, Canhawan, Igdarapdap, San Antonio and Guiwanon.

Rehab plan set

Meanwhile, the government’s rehabilitation plan for areas affected by the Solar I oil spill will rev into high gear once the cleanup and containment operations are complete, disaster officials said.

National Disaster Coordinating Council executive director and Office of Civil Defense (OCD) administrator Glenn Rabonza said full restoration of Guimaras will be faster once the cleanup is complete.

"We hope that we can immediately do this so that we can start bringing back normalcy to the affected areas of the oil spill in Guimaras," Rabonza said over the weekend.

He said a "comprehensive rehabilitation program" will be formulated by members of the scientific community, residents of the affected areas and local government officials.

However, he did not say how much this rehabilitation program would cost.

"We would like to emphasize here that we are still in response mode and we are not yet in full rehabilitation," he said.

Rabonza added that the government responded immediately in the cleanup and containment operations along the affected shorelines and communities.

He said the Department of Science and Technology (DOST) is tasked with providing a scientific basis for the implementation of the rehabilitation program.

"Hopefully, they can provide baseline data on how many mangroves, fish, have been affected so this will be a basis for a scientific plan for a rehab of the area," he said.

The government plans to provide environmental rehabilitation and alternative livelihood programs for the people affected by the oil spill. He added that 23 of 54 coastal barangays in the immediate vicinity of the mishap have already been hit by the oil spill.

Science Secretary Estrella Alabastro said the University of the Philippines Visayas is the site for studies assessing the condition of marine resources affected by the oil spill.

Alabastro said the DOST will also assess the efficacy of various materials used to contain the oil spill, including coconut husks, human hair and chicken feathers.

If the DOST finds these materials effective, it will recommend the used of such organic material should another oil spill occur.

As of Sunday, 120 people from 60 families living along the contaminated areas in Guimarasa were evacuated to safer ground.

The Japanese salvage ship Shinsei Maru, commissioned by Petron, located the MT Solar I on the seabed of the Guimaras Strait on Saturday.

In Zamboanga City, DOST officials said the government and the private sector need not spend millions of pesos in removing the oil slick poisoning the Guimaras coast if nature takes her course and several typhoons continue battering the central Philippines, as they do each year.

DOST officials from the Guimaras Task Force disclosed that wave action brought by typhoons can actually clean up the 99.6 kilometers stretch oil slick in southern Guimaras coast lines.

DOST Undersecretary Graciano Yumul Jr. said that, while the wave action from these typhoons may be a passive force, the effect could greatly help remove the tons of crude oil spilled in the Guimaras Strait.

Yumul said the wave action will sweep the slick into the open sea, where the bunker fuel will disintegrate.

"This can only be possible when there is typhoon. It will literally help the place recover," he said.

Yumul also said it is also wrong to ask Filipinos to pray for early typhoons, because the country is already visited by typhoons yearly.

Although the Philippines is being visited with 21 tropical storms annually, he said the process will be slow.

"It’s nature’s way of balancing things. But if you will just allow nature to take its place it will be a long process," Yumul said, adding that they are also engaged in engineering intervention.

Yumul also brushed aside "overblown" apprehensions that the oil slick would affect nearby areas.

"It’s overblown that the oil slick impacted eastern Guimaras. It is not as bad as the southwest Guimaras," he said.

Task Force Guimaras is now carefully reviewing the video and photographs of the sunken tanker and has yet to decide whether to siphon off the oil or to raise the tanker and draw off the remaining oil, Yumul said.

"We have to see the information taken by the (Shinsei Maru’s) ROV (remote operated vehicle). We want to review and from there we can have an idea," Yumul said at the 15th Mindanao Business Conference. — With Helen Flores, Roel Pareño