Si Julz ug  iyang GF

Petron Corp. said yesterday it has finished the cleanup of areas in Guimaras and Iloilo affected by what is considered as the largest oil spill in Philippine history, and that the rehabilitation phase is “now in motion.”

Petron president Khalid Al-Faddagh said the company has spent some P200 million for the cleanup of oil debris caused by the sinking of the MT Solar I tanker off Guimaras in August last year.

“Everything has been removed,” Al-Faddagh told reporters following a forum on Petron’s corporate social responsibility programs in Makati City.

“The rehabilitation of the island and other areas affected is now in motion,” he added.

Maila Angela Ong, public and government relations manager of Petron Corp., said the P200 million was spent on the cleanup and relief operations for the affected communities.

Ong said the retrieval of the remaining oil in the compartments of the sunken MT Solar I lasted for about 20 days and ended last March 21.

“As early as November (last year), we have been saying that it has been cleaned up but we still had to go back because waves brought (more) oil debris,” Ong said. “But right now, the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and Task Force Solar I (said), it’s already clean.”

Meanwhile, Al-Faddagh said they are coordinating with experts from the University of the Philippines-Visayas, Silliman University, and conservation groups like the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) to determine the appropriate approaches in rehabilitating the affected areas.

The rehabilitation phase will involve not only the ecosystem distressed by the oil spill, but also alternative livelihood for the affected residents.

Ong said Petron has introduced training in seaweed farming as an alternative livelihood for the affected communities, in coordination of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Poultry raising and vegetable farming may also be introduced as part of the rehabilitation efforts, she added.

Ong, however, said the mangroves might be spared from the rehabilitation, as suggested by scientists, since human intervention might only cause more harm to the mangroves whose trunks had been stained with oil sludge.

“We are not experts. We are not scientists. (But) their advice is not to touch (the mangroves). They said that it is better that waves remove (the oil sludge) naturally from the trunks of the mangroves,” she said.

On Aug. 11 last year, the Petron-chartered MT Solar I sank off Guimaras while it was en route to deliver two million liters of bunker fuel to Zamboanga del Norte from Bataan.

MT Solar I, owned by Sunshine Maritime Development Corp., sank 16.5 nautical miles from Lusaran Point in Barangay Tando, Nueva Valencia, Guimaras, or 30 nautical miles from Iloilo City. It sank at 2,000 feet below sea level.

According to the DENR, the oil that leaked from the submerged tanker damaged 687.48 hectares of mangroves in Guimaras alone, as well as 20 hectares of seagrass, 100 hectares of coral reefs, 974 hectares of fishponds, 107 hectares of seaweed farms, and 234.84 kilometers of coastline.

The DENR added that oil spill displaced more than 150,000 people in three coastal towns in Guimaras, and two towns in Iloilo. – With Gian Carlo Tauro