EDITORIAL - Evicted

This should serve as a lesson in long-term planning. Several decades ago, before the creation of a Greater Manila area, before overcrowding became a problem in the nation’s capital, Pandacan and Sta. Ana in Manila were developed as an industrial and manufacturing zone. Along the banks of the Pasig River the major oil companies set up their oil warehouses and main distribution facilities, for the easy transport of imported crude and the refined products.

Through the years a residential area grew around the depot. That area in time became one of the most densely populated in Manila. No one thought of setting up a buffer zone to protect these crowded areas in case of an accident at the depot. A buffer park was built around the depot a few years back, but it was too little, too late.

After the terrorist attacks in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, various quarters became worried that an attack on the depot could bring catastrophic devastation to the districts of Pandacan and Sta. Ana. The two districts were reclassified from industrial to commercial areas and the oil companies told to relocate their depot.

The relocation site will have to be picked carefully and planned with long-term considerations in mind. Obviously it is not cheap to shut down a massive depot and relocate. The depot of the "Big Three" oil companies is what’s left of the American colonial days when Pandacan was developed as Manila’s manufacturing and industrial hub. The depot supplied half of the fossil fuel needs of the entire country.

Public safety and environmental concerns must now be weighed against the need for quick and affordable access to fuel supply in the nation’s premier region. The oil companies will have to write off this loss as an investment in security and environmental responsibility. These problems were not foreseen a century ago when the oil depot was being built. Now there are lessons that have been imparted on the need for better industrial planning. The lessons must not go unheeded.