Petron faces possible boycott

The contamination of the town of Concepcion has alarmed mayors of other coastal towns in the province that the oil slick might also reach their communities.

In Tuesday’s meeting of local executives with Iloilo Gov. Niel Tupas, the Iloilo town mayors passed a resolution approving a possible boycott of Petron products should the fuel firm fail to salvage the sunken tanker or solve the environmental problem by the weekend.

The Carlos municipal government issued an alert and also approved a declaration of a state of imminent danger. The Carlos mayor said this move will free funds for use in protecting the richest fishing ground of Iloilo province from getting contaminated by the oil sludge.

Last night, there were unfounded rumors that the oil slick had reached Tigbauan. But the information needs to be verified as the town is in the province’s first district and not in the general direction of the tide or wind flow.

But coming from Noring Tonogbanaua, a key Lions official of Bacolod Capitol who hailed originally from Tigbauan, Iloilo, the information got the attention of the other members of the Bacolod Capitol Lions Club.

This only goes to show that a major disaster such as the oil spill could trigger a lot of rumors. The most alarming was the reported death of a Guimaras fisherman, Remelio Dalida, who reportedly succumbed to cardio-respiratory arrest after inhaling fumes from the oil sludge in Nueva Valencia.

That incident prompted the Regional Disaster Coordinating Council in the Western Visayas to call for a halt to the manual cleanup of the Guimaras shorelines by residents, mostly fishermen, without any protective gear. This has become a television spectacle in the past few days. Several workmen were shown shoveling the sludge while others were caught by the camera using their bare hands to clean oil-covered stones and debris.

Luckily, Sen. Richard Gordon, who is also Philippine National Red Cross chairman, dispatched yesterday some 500 gloves and 1,000 pairs of rubber boots to Guimaras for use by the locals.

Former Rep. Emily Relucio-Lopez also phoned me yesterday, warning of the danger posed to local residents mobilized by Petron to help in the cleanup drive.

Petron has hired some 1,000 residents to clean up areas affected by the oil spill.

The problem is that they are virtually left to use their own devices. The residents, according to Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz, are reportedly being paid P200 daily by Petron. But they manually scoop debris and spilled bunker fuel from Guimaras shorelines.

Most of these fishermen have lost their livelihood due to the blobs of oil that killed fish and other marine products.

A health emergency coordinator observed that most workers were barefoot and were scooping out contaminated debris only with their bare hands.

Even Guimaras Gov. Joaquin Nava, himself a physician, put his foot down against dumping recovered sludge in the island-province.

Nava said he had rejected the disposal of the oil sludge anywhere in the island-province.

"No, no, no," was how Nava put it when interviewed by local newsmen by phone, saying that the sludge should be dumped elsewhere.

This was the same observation made by Emily Lopez, who visited the island recently. Lopez, with Victor Consunji, head of the Semirara Coal Corp. and a Semirara barangay captain, pointed out the danger of just dumping the poisonous chemicals anywhere sans the necessary precautionary study.

Both Petron and Sunshine Maritime Corp. have been looking for a dumping place for the recovered sludge.

The Guimaras governor pointed out that the province does not have a disposal area as had Semirara, which earlier faced a similar catastrophe.

He also pointed out the lack of drums to store the recovered sludge. He predicted that many more Guimarasnons may soon fall victims to respiratory ailments due to their exposure to the oil slick.

Senate President Manuel Villar is reportedly scheduled to fly to Guimaras today to see the situation himself and to verify what legislation is needed to avert similar contingencies in the future.

There were complaints from the evacuated residents of four Guimaras towns and 20 coastal communities about inadequate food supply.

One resident said his family received only one and a half kilos of rice and three cans of sardines from Petron.

This was also Nava’s complaint. Guimaras may soon run out of funds to feed the 20,000 evacuees who have lost their principal source of livelihood — fishing.

But there are others who may soon find themselves at a loss on what to do. These are the personnel of the many beach resorts and tourist spots of the island, mostly along islets that dot Guimaras.

In E.B. Magalona of Negros Occidental, Mayor Alfonso Gamboa said it is fortunate that the patches of oil sludge seen two kilometers from the shoreline of Pasil in Barangay Lantasan were washed away toward the shores of Iloilo province. That is also according to the report by Arsenio Palma, secretary of the Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Management Council.

Mayor Gamboa said the oil slick could have been washed away by the continuous heavy rains and the water current from Bago and Malogo rivers.

E.B. Magalona is most abundant of blue crabs, some of which are exported to Japan.

Negros and Iloilo officials are pinning their hopes on possible help from foreign experts, including US experts who may be able to refloat the sunken tanker. At the moment, this hope remains dim if the vessel is actually at the bottom of a 3,000-foot trench off Guimaras Strait.

Meanwhile, there is a controversy on the reported oil seepage, which according the Coast Guard is about 100 to 200 liters per day. Petron, however, insists that what is being monitored are just the residue of what had already been dumped into the sea by the tanker.

There was also talk of using indigenous materials to contain the drift of the slick. Most localities have already come up with improvised oil brooms. Greenpeace has been appealing recently for human hair from beauty parlors and beauty shops.

Maria Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros of Greenpeace International claims that human hair has already been tested and proven as the best indigenous absorbent material against oil spill.

She also appealed for donations of rice or flour sacks, sponges, bagasse, rice straw and other absorbent materials to help combat the oil spill.

Most are avidly watching the latest developments in this worst environmental catastrophe in Philippine history.

I just hope they don’t forget the Guimaras fisherfolk who are getting hungrier and angrier each day.