Manila: Oil depot can stay

MANILA, Philippines - The Pandacan oil depot has won another round in its bid to remain in the city after the Manila City Council passed on final reading yesterday an ordinance, which amends an ordinance reclassifying Pandacan into a residential-commercial zone without heavy industries.

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim has to sign the draft for it to become an ordinance.

Once signed by Lim, Ordinance 7177 would take effect 15 days after its publication in accordance with law.

The ordinance will benefit Chevron Philippines Inc. (formerly Caltex Philippines Inc), Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and other heavy- and medium-scale industries in Manila.

A majority of 20 councilors voted to pass the ordinance, while the 14 minority councilors tried to block it.

Four councilors were absent.

Ordinance 7177 seeks to amend Ordinance No. 8119 passed during the Atienza administration, which provided for the gradual phase out of the Pandacan oil depot.

Tondo Councilor Arlene Koa, author of Ordinance 7177, said the Supreme Court has ruled that a new ordinance could supersede the ordinance providing for the closure of the Pandacan oil depot.

“We are following the Supreme Court ruling, we respect the Supreme Court ruling,” she said. “The old ordinance is superceded now by Ordinance 7177.”

Last May 7, the SC upheld with finality Ordinance No. 8119 and ordered the Pandacan oil depot’s closure.

Koa said the passage of the draft ordinance is for “the betterment and welfare” of Manila.

“We will not allow the removal of these industries,” she said.

“It just so happens that the Big Three are included here, which they (minority) are always citing as a reason why this ordinance should not be approved.

“This a very wrong timing why we should order the industries to leave the city of Manila.”

Koa said thousands of employees will be displaced and taxes would be lost if the Pandacan oil depot and other heavy industries are forced to leave Manila.

“Barangays would lose their income and budget for projects,” she said.

“All tax credits will be lost. This will have a domino effect. Several commercial establishments would close. This is a solution to the problem that is going on now globally.”

Pandacan Councilor Maria Lourdes “Bonjay” Isip-Garcia, who led the minority, walked out of the session hall before the City Council passed the draft ordinance.

Other minority councilors also walked out, and the session was adjourned before 3 p.m. yesterday.

After losing the vote, Isip-Garcia shouted at Manila Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, who presides over the city council: “It (draft ordinance) will kill the City of Manila,” when Moreno tried to stop her from speaking.

“There are millions of reasons why they railroaded Ordinance 7177,” Isip-Garcia told reporters outside the session hall.

“And they could not deny that the biggest beneficiaries in the passage of the law are the Big Three oil companies. They are sugar-coating the issue here, saying that they cannot allow the thousands of employees of other industries, other than the Big Three oil companies, to lose their jobs.

“This ordinance is really designed for the Big Three oil companies.”

Isip-Garcia said Manila is the only city in the world where an oil depot is allowed to remain.

“Even oil refineries, manufacturers of highly combustible and liquefied petroleum gases, all highly and extremely hazardous and poisonous (substances) are being allowed,” she said.

“We must fight this Ordinance 7177.”

More than P65 million in income annually would be lost if the Pandacan oil deport and other heavy industries are ordered to leave the city, according to former Manila vice mayor Danny Lacuna, legal counsel of Koa.

A total of P65,938,909.93 in taxes are  collected from these industries alone by the city of Manila, Koa said.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes said the passage of the draft ordinance reflects the City Council’s desire to avoid any crisis in oil supply and prices in Metro Manila.

“If the original ordinance is now overturned then there is no ordinance to implement,” he said. “That’s my interpretation.”

Reyes said it has been the energy department’s concern to ensure energy security in the country.

“My concern is only that we are assured of secured supply of petroleum products, particularly in Metro Manila,” he said.

“We don’t want any disruption of that and we don’t want any undesirable price behavior as a result of any moves in location – that’s my only concern.

“Now even the Supreme Court, when it handed that decision, said that this decision is not made to provoke any crisis, they don’t want that and nobody wants that.”

Chevron also welcomed the passage of the draft ordinance.

“We have always maintained that the Pandacan terminal facility is safe,” Chevron said.

“The Manila RTC hearing the case filed by Chevron to nullify the first ordinance in fact granted its motion for a writ of preliminary injunction.

“It was just unfortunate that the (Social Justice Society) filed a case directly with the Supreme Court, which came out with the ruling upholding the validity of the first ordinance but without the benefit of a full-blown trail to consider the factual, legal and constitutional issues raised by Chevron and the other oil companies before the Manila RTC,” Chevron added. —With Donnabelle Gatdula