Back in those days, oil tankers were single-hulled vessels, but after the Exxon Valdez incident, many single-hulled oil tankers were scrapped and changed to double-hulled vessels, which provided better protection from oil spills. The Exxon Valdez was fixed and renamed Sea River Mediterranean and I’m sure you’ll remember that the last time we saw this ship was on the Kevin Costner movie "Waterworld." Incidentally, the skipper of the Exxon Valdez, Capt. Joseph Hazelwood, was found guilty of negligence and a settlement of $1.1 billion was rejected by a federal judge.
Why am I mentioning the Exxon Valdez? Well, I just got a call from our good friend Alan Ortiz of Transco inviting me to Boracay for the inauguration of Transco’s submarine cable that will serve that world famous island. The first thing that came into my mind was: What ever happened to the oil spill that threatened the pristine white beaches of Boracay?
How could we forget that power barge 106 belonging to the National Power Corp. (NPC) ran aground and spilled 195,000 liters of bunker fuel off Semirara Island on Dec. 18, 2005. Perhaps because Christmas was just around the corner, the media didn’t give this incident any real attention until a month later when the Coast Guard was having difficulty containing the spilled crude oil. We first wrote about this incident in our Jan.13, 2006 column.
Up to now, I’m still wondering whether this oil spill has been contained or not, as there seems to be no one covering that beat in Semirara, which is a mere 60 kilometers from Boracay island. While this oil spill is nothing compared to the Exxon Valdez disaster, what I find disturbing is that NPC officials were quick to say that they would pay for the clean-up of the oil spill. Now, didn’t we say that it is not the NPC execs paying for this but the taxpayer? If you ask me, that negligent tugboat captain should also be facing charges for this oil spill. We all need this accountability!
There is no question that the Visayan Seas is over fished, especially by commercial fishing trawlers whose nets often kill or destroy the habitat of many sea creatures. In many Western countries, hunting and fishing are allowed only in certain seasons so that the fish stocks can replenish themselves. But here, fishing is an everyday exercise without any let up.
To show support to this cause, Cebu Gov. Gwen Garcia, Iloilo Gov. Neil Tupas, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Marañon and then Environment Secretary Michael Defensor signed a commitment to restore and preserve the wealth of the Visayan Seas in March of last year. Because of the support of this political leaders, there is a lot of apprehension now that the Visayan Seas would soon be closed.
I, too, support this very noble goal of the Visayan Sea Squadron because if we do not act now, in the very near future our children won’t have anything to fish anymore. So, the big question is how far should we go to close the Visayan Seas? Just take a good look at how many forest guards we have per square kilometer of rain forest? I’m sure that the very energetic group of Bantay Dagat Program of Jojo dela Victoria can cover the coastline of Cebu province, but how about the other islands?
I’m writing this piece which I took from the book "Under the Southern Cross — The Saga of the Americal Division" by Capt. Francis Cron, published by the Combat Forces Press, Washington D.C. so that our people will know a part of Philippine history, which unfortunately is not even taught in any history class in any school in this country.
The invasion of Cebu was unlike the Leyte Landing on Red Beach (which was bombarded by the big Naval guns of the battleships that supported the invasion) because the Talisay Landing was virtually a walk in the park, the first wave of 15 Landing Vehicle Tracked (LVT’s) coming ashore in Talisay without a shot being fired by the Japanese. But 10 of the 15 LVTs struck a minefield and were either disabled or destroyed. Eight American soldiers died, while 39 were wounded, most of whom were inside the LVTs and caused a traffic jam on the beachhead.
After the beaches were cleared of mines, the landings continued and Talisay was secured. According to Cron, the American Division discovered on the beach in Tangke, Talisay "the most elaborate and effective beach defenses installed by the Japanese that the Americans encountered in all their operations in the Philippines." Actually the first encounter between the US forces and the Japanese was in Pardo, which the Americans later found to be a Japanese delaying tactic. Nothing much happened the rest of March 26th but a more intensified battle was awaiting the American Division in the days and months to follow before Cebu was freed.
Actually, the island of Cebu was liberated only on Aug. 28, 1945 when Lt. General Sadashi Kataoka, Commander of the Japanese 35th Army, surrendered his remaining forces of 2,667 officers and men to the Americans in Ilihan, Northern Cebu. We’ll write more about this in future columns.