SC orders relocation of Pandacan oil depot

MANILA, Philippines - Pandacan is a residential area that is vulnerable in case the oil depot is hit by a terrorist attack, according to Manila city officials.

Yesterday the Supreme Court agreed. Voting 10-2, the SC ordered the Manila city government to oversee the relocation of the oil depot in Pandacan within six months.

Chevron Philippines Inc., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. and Petron Corp. were ordered by the SC to submit within 45 days a comprehensive relocation plan to the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 39.

The SC gave the big three oil companies six months to move out of Pandacan after it ruled as unconstitutional a Manila city ordinance that reclassified the area as a heavy industrial zone and invalidated the oil companies’ continued stay in the depot.

In a decision penned by Associate Justice Jose Perez, the court also directed Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada “to cease and desist” from implementing Ordinance 8187.

The court also directed Estrada to oversee the relocation and transfer in coordination with the appropriate government agencies, the oil companies and other parties involved.

At a press briefing, SC spokesman Theodore Te said the court based its reasoning on its ruling issued on Feb. 13, 2008, which sustained the validity of Manila City Ordinance 8027, which reclassifies portions of the Manila districts of Pandacan and Sta. Ana from industrial to residential and commercial.

It also directs certain business owners and operators Caltex, Petron and Pilipinas Shell to cease from operating their businesses.

The SC declared that the objective of the ordinance is to protect the residents of Manila from the catastrophic devastation that will surely occur in case of a terrorist attack on the Pandacan depot.

Mayor Estrada welcomed the SC decision to transfer the Pandacan oil depot.

Estrada told The STAR he had made the decision much earlier than the SC order to transfer the Pandacan oil depot because he knows the dangers that it posed to Manileños.

In 2009, Ordinance 8187 reclassified the oil depot area as a heavy industrial zone, allowing the oil terminals to remain in Manila. But in August 2012, Ordinance 8283 again reclassified the area, this time as a high-intensity commercial zone.

“I have made the order much earlier than the Supreme Court. But I welcome the Supreme Court’s order because it means that there will be no more stumbling block in the removal of the oil depot from Pandacan,” Estrada said.

Estrada had issued sometime in April this year an order to the oil companies to present to the city government their respective relocation plans.

“Let this letter serve as your notice that regular monitoring will be conducted by the city government to determine the progress of your activities,” Estrada said in a letter sent to the heads of the oil companies.

Estrada reminded the oil companies of the deadline of Jan. 31, 2016 for them to complete their relocation. With Jose Rodel Clapano