Huge industrial oil spill threatens Laguna Bay

A huge oil spill in Cavite is threatening to contaminate Laguna de Bay as disaster authorities are trying to control the environmental disaster, caused by a bursting oil pipeline of an industrial and electronics firm at the People’s Technological Complex in Barangay Maduya, Carmona town the other day.

Chief Superintendent Domingo Reyes, Southern Tagalog police director and concurrent chair of the Southern Tagalog Regional Disaster Coordinating Council (RDCC), reported that as of yesterday afternoon, the oil spill has already affected a six-kilometer stretch of Carmona-Biñan River, just a few kilometers away from the Laguna Bay.

Aside from the affected river, the spilling bunker oil and industrial fuel oil (IFO) also affected land base areas surrounding the firm, ROHM Electronics-Philippines Inc.

Reyes’ reports reaching the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) yesterday said the environmental disaster occurred at about 11:30 a.m. the other day when one of the main oil and fuel pipes leading to the generators of ROHM Electronics bursts.

The NDCC has dispatched to the place its Oil Spill Response Team (OSRT) with oil spill combating equipment yesterday morning.

So far, the team laid oil spill containment boom between Barangays Poblacion and San Vicente in Biñan, to block the flow of spilling oil and fuel towards Laguna de Bay.

Ongoing clean-up operations is underway with officials of the NDCC, the Laguna Lake Development Authority (LLDA) and representatives from local environmental units of Biñan and Carmona and Edgar de Jesus of ROHM Electronics met to discuss possible impact of the disaster in affected areas.

The NDCC has yet to place the exact estimate of how many gallons of bunker and fuel oil have spilled from the bursting pipeline of ROHM Electronics.

Meanwhile, in Dagupan City, the incoming mayor said the problem of garbage will be one of his top priorities.

City Mayor-elect Benjamin Lim told journalists here Friday that he plans to transfer the garbage dumping site from the Bonuan area to another area outside the city.

Lim said that he is closely coordinating with former Speaker and Congressman-elect Jose de Venecia Jr. in looking for a new dumping site for the fourth district.

He said, however, that there should also be an economic advantage for the host municipality, adding that it should also be far for residential houses.

He added that the procurement of garbage trucks with compactor will help in increasing the capabilities in the collection.

Lim said they will work for an ordinance on the segregation of waste which he believed would substantially reduce the volume of garbage. — With Cesar Ramirez