EMB fines depot P.4 M for oil spill

MANILA, Philippines - The Environmental Management Bureau’s National Capital Region (EMB-NCR) office ordered yesterday Larraine’s Marketing, which owns the oil depot that spilled bunker fuel into the Pasig River, to pay a fine of P450,000 for violating the provisions of its environmental compliance certificate (ECC).

EMB-NCR director Minda Osorio said the firm violated a total of nine conditions in the ECC. “Each condition they violated amounts to a fine of P50,000 so they have to pay a total of P450,000,” Osorio said in an interview.

The oil depot’s ECC was ordered suspended by the EMB-NCR Monday after bunker fuel from Larraine Marketing’s storage tanks leaked into the Pasig River Saturday night. A number of residents were brought to the hospital after they complained of difficulty in breathing because of the oil leak.

Osorio said they also ordered the oil depot to submit a “pollution control program and measures” to address air and water pollution as a result of its operations.

She added Larraine’s Marketing was also given 15 days to explain why it should not be fined with regards to air and water pollution. It is the Pollution Adjudication Board that should be setting fines in this case. Meanwhile, the LLDA is the one who has jurisdiction over water bodies that are polluted.

The Manila city government shut down the oil depot Wednesday even as the LLDA served a cease-and-desist order against the firm on the same day.

The LLDA ordered the oil depot to pay a fine of at least P10,000 every day until the violation involving its pipe and drainage system has been rectified.

The LLDA said the order is intended to address the problems of the depot’s pipe and drainage system and not to close down the whole establishment.

The EMB and LLDA are offices under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.