Pandacan oil depot disaster can be prevented – Philsar

Admitting a holocaust in the city of Manila in the event of an accidental explosion at the Pandacan oil depot, a group of shipbuilders suggested the use of offshore tanks as a better alternative to the high cost of relocating the oil plant.

Fil Salonga, president of the Philippine Shipbuilders and Repairers Association (Philsar), in a letter sent to The STAR, said the use of offshore tanks mounted on large pontoons can avert a disastrous Pandacan mega-explosion.

By such technology, the fuel products of the Big Three oil companies can be stored at sea in offshore tanks. In this way, any accidental ignition and explosion would occur away from populated areas.

According to Salonga, structures called "Mega Floats" were developed by Japanese shipbuilders but Filipinos, like the people in Philsar, have the capability and the facilities to build such structures .

Philsar has been lobbying Congress since last year to pass legislation that could lead to the closure of the Pandacan oil depot. The group first noted the chilling effect of a major disaster when the headquarters of the Department of Energy and two oil depots in the provinces were bombed last March 2, 2000 by alleged terrorists.

Philsar has been airing the same warning a foreign expert recently made, ever since.

The burning to death of 14 people when a tanker truck’s gas tank exploded after it went out of control and rammed some parked vehicles on the Coastal Road in Parañaque was "only a microscopic sample of what petrochemical explosions can do to people," according to Salonga.

He said Congress should take notice of these tragedies and pass the necessary legislation before it is too late.

Aidan Tasker-Lynch, an Irish expatriate and an expert on disaster management, had warned that a large part of Manila, including Malacañang Palace, the area within a 2-km radius, is in danger of being obliterated in case of an accidental explosion at the Pandacan oil depot.

He likened the possible devastation of Manila to the incident in Mexico City in 1984 where more than 600 people perished after a liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) plant accidentally ignited and exploded.

"The Mexico tragedy would pale in comparison with what will happen in Manila in case the Pandacan oil depot explodes," he added, "It would be at least 10 times worse than Mexico."

Even the country’s firemen admitted that they are not capable of fighting large-scale conflagrations arising from an oil depot explosion due to inadequate firefighting equipment. A Pandacan explosion would burn large parts of Paco, Sta. Ana, Sta. Mesa, San Miguel and Sampaloc in Manila and even Mandaluyong and Makati, aside from the whole of Pandacan, in one gigantic bonfire. – Nestor Etolle