A scary scenario

It was admirable how First Philippine Industrial Corp.  (FPIC), the operators of the Batangas-to-Manila petroleum pipeline, immediately took responsibility for the effects of the petroleum leak emanating from their pipeline. 

The public expected no less from a Lopez-operated entity.

FPIC’s OIC Anthony Mabasa himself assured the public that although the ultimate liability has yet to be established, the company takes responsibility and will do whatever has to be done to compensate fairly those affected and to clean up any environmental contamination that the leakage may have caused.  

That said, it should be pointed out that admission of responsibility is by no way an admission of culpability or fault. After all, FPIC may not have caused the leak. 

One suspect is the concrete footing of the Magallanes Flyover, built in the early ‘70s by the then Ministry of Public Works, which is resting on FPIC’s petroleum pipeline. Experts say the vibration caused by the heavy volume of vehicles traversing that road may have caused the pipeline to spring those mongo-sized leaks.

FPIC has all this time been reaching out not only to the West Tower Condominium residents, but the entire Bangkal community as well. The company has reportedly even offered West Tower condo owners as much as P100,000 as a token of goodwill and for the inconvenience caused.

Sadly, some people have are suspicious of FPIC’s motives, to the extent of calling it a bribe. Others seem to want a bigger amount, plain and simple.

Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has just issued a writ of kalikasan and a temporary environment protection order that prevented FPIC from operating the pipeline until further orders from the court.

Already, a number of Shell gasoline stations are no longer selling fuel. This is to be expected because Shell uses FPIC’s pipeline to transport its products from the refinery in Batangas to Manila. And by the way, the said pipeline transports about 60 percent of the fuel needs of Metro Manila.

Some say we may end up paying P100 per liter of gasoline. If fuel is transported through trucks or barges from Batangas, the price of fuel could easily double.

Bantay-salakay

Stakeholders in the tobacco industry were closely awaiting the outcome of the 4th Conference of Parties (COP4) of the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention of Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) in Uruguay from Nov. 15-20.

The Philippines is a signatory to the FCTC, a global treaty seeking to regulate and reduce tobacco use.To be decided is the adoption of the proposed guidelines for Articles 9 and 10 of the FCTC, which seeks to recommend to member countries to pass local legislation banning the use of ingredients in tobacco products.

Local manufacturers of American blend cigarettes use ingredients in their products. Any attempt at an indiscriminate and non-scientific ban on the use of ingredients would result in a de-facto ban on American blend cigarettes in the Philippines. This would kill the local tobacco industry.

It is no wonder that 13 congressmen who make up the Northern Luzon Alliance, whose constituents include farmers in the tobacco-producing provinces in the Ilocos region, wrote President Aquino last week opposing the proposed guidelines.

Alliance members also complained about the composition of the original Philippine delegation to the COP4, which included anti-tobacco groups.

These groups, the Health Justice Foundation Inc. and the UP College of Law Foundation, have reportedly received grants from the Bloomberg Foundation for their anti-tobacco campaign amounting to $35,200 and $353,030, respectively.

One wonders why two anti-tobacco groups are included as advisers of the Philippine delegation in a meeting participated in by various governments.

In the interest of fair play, won’t it make better sense to have one adviser from an anti-tobacco group and one from the tobacco industry?

The original composition of the Philippine delegation was a tightly kept secret of the Department of Health (DOH) until the inclusion of the anti-tobacco groups was finally exposed by the Northern Luzon Alliance a few days before the delegation was supposed to depart for Uruguay. It was only then that the DOH invited the Department of Agriculture (DA) and the National Tobacco Administration (NTA) to become part of the Philippine delegation.

With a more balanced composition, the tobacco industry hopes that the sector will be given a fair chance.

Getting ready for X’mas

Malls and shopping centers seem unfazed by the terrorist alerts authorities have been talking about these past few weeks. With the Christmas season just around the corner, they’re making sure that shoppers get into the holiday spirit.

One of the more popular shopping destinations in Metro Manila, Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan, is stepping up safety and security measures in the hope that its traditional Christmas shoppers come.

Greenhills management is working closely with San Juan City and its police department to make sure its customers are safe. Joint measures include beefing up inspection activities inside the shopping center and in the surrounding parking areas, adding foot patrols and K-9 units, and increasing the overall visibility of security and police personnel.

The shopping center’s property manager, Monch Sumulong, says they are also instituting additional measures to improve traffic flow in and around the shopping center – a big boost considering that traffic can often be a nightmare in Greenhills. They promised to add one more valet parking station to be strategically located inside the center.

Greenhills is, of course, known for its tiangges where anything from clothing, accessories, gadgets, and toys are sold.

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