Major oil firms find legal basis to stay in Pandacan

The Big "3" oil companies may have found a legal basis for allowing the scaled down Pandacan Terminal to stay.

Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. external affairs manager Roberto Kanapi said under the "non-conforming use" principle of the Housing and Land Use Regulatory Board (HLURB), an area may be rezoned subject to the continued operation of pre-existing establishments.

According to Kanapi, this particular zoning principle is generally-accepted by the HLURB.

In an ordinance, the City Council reclassified the area occupied by the oil depot from industrial to commercial and called for the closing down of the facility.

Kanapi said the oil firms will come up with a position paper within the next two weeks to reiterate to the City Council their request for a repeal of the said ordinance using the HLURB principle as a basis.

"Our continued stay is possible through the repeal of the ordinance or an amendment allowing the scaled down Pandacan Terminal on the basis of the accepted zoning principle of "non-conforming use." This principle allows the rezoning of an area subject to the continued operation of pre-existing establishments," the oil companies said, in a statement delivered during the closing of the public hearing on whether to allow the Pandacan depot to stay beyond the three-month period.

Upon the request of the Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Security Council (NSC), the City Council of Manila granted a three-month business permit last January to oil companies which will expire by end-April this year.

A series of public hearings were conducted to allow the concerned parties to air their respective sides on the decision of the council to provide only a three-month permit for oil firms to operate the depot.

Yesterday, at least 29 barangay officials/chairmen met with Pandacan depot operators – Shell, Petron Corp. and Caltex Philippines Inc. – to express their views on the issue.

Almost all the barangay officials were in favor of allowing the Pandacan oil terminals to stay as long as proper safety measures are put in place. Barangay officials from the nearby communities also asked the oil firms to provide logistics support like additional fire trucks and safety training programs in case of emergency in the area.

As of end-January 2003, the oil firms reported that they have scaled down their operation in the oil depot by 50 percent. They plan to complete the scaling down by the first quarter of 2004.