Whose fault is it?

We have about experienced almost everything under the sun – both human and natural catastrophic events in the past months. Two major typhoons, a tsunami-like tragedy, a volcanic eruption, mini-revolts against the government, mass evacuation drive from Lebanon of our OFWs, impeachment failures, a national nurse exam leakage and now an oil spill. Is God trying tell us something? Or is the Philippines undergoing some sort of physical or spiritual "cleansing"?

With all these tragedies, we tend to always point a finger to some culprit instead of finding solutions to the problems right away. Like during the time when the OFWs from Lebanon were being flown back to Manila — the Senate demanded an inquiry right away instead of acting on the problem first. When the nursing board exam leakage problem came out, another inquiry was immediately done even before allowing the Philippine Nurses Association (PNA) Board to resolve their own mess.

Today, we still have two cases unresolved: the Nursing Board Exam misfortune and the Guimaras Oil Spill disaster. Two "leaks" that face our country – both handled in a slow and woefully way.

The quick resolution needed for the nurses must be announced right away. I know it is a delicate matter that has to be carefully studied but an urgent response needs to be finalized immediately since all board passers are already in dire need of a job. In fact, many have jobs already, pending their Philippine Regulation Commission (PRC) certificates.

According to the news, the PNA Board has already announced the invalidation of the questions and since the advantage of the leakage was removed it made the computation of grades made by PRC legitimate. So, by excluding the leaked questions (according to PNA President, Dr. Marilyn Yap), the PRC has done enough to cleanse the examination. That’s good enough — now let us put our act together, pronto!

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Now shouldn’t we hasten our restoration efforts to save the environment injured by the Petron Oil Spill nightmare in Guimaras Island? Remember, the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill in the Alaska Peninsula at Bligh Reef? It ranked No. 1 in oil spills worldwide in terms of damage to the environment.

The vessel used by Exxon Shipping Company was a 987 feet ship, second newest amongst its vessels. No one would have anticipated an accident or a problem since everything seemed to be all ready for sail. During its voyage, the captain found themselves caught in the middle of some ice in Alaska. The ship has to change it lanes as it passed through some bumpy rides. Thinking everything was safe, after 3 hours of being grounded at Bligh Reef, the cargo tanks started spewing some 10.8 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound from 8 out of 11 cargo tanks. By the way, the vessel was transporting 53 million gallons of oil.

What happened to the 10.8 million gallons of crude oil that spilled? It eventually reached 1,000 miles of beach in South Central Alaska. There were 10,000 clean-up crew workers, 1,000 clean-up boats and 100 aircrafts all part of the efforts to clean up. There were also 4 deaths associated to the clean-up.

There were so many groups formed to resolve this tragedy: the Alaska Spill Commission, the On-Scene Coordination of the Environment Conservation, the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Response Team, the National Transportation Safety Board, etc. Even the Americans were miserable and frustrated with the turn of events. The clean-up took some time. It did not happen overnight. The investigation took a long time until a final report came out all pointing out to human error. The coast guards were also partly to blame for not having provided an effective vessel traffic system and an alternative route. The ships captain was fined $50,000 and I think 1,000 hours of community service.

Now we are confronted with our own oil spill. Where are ship’s owners? We are all pointing our hands to Petron and yet not hearing anything about the M/T Solar I chartered by Petron from Sunshine Maritime. And for Petron, it is about time that you take action. Why take your time when the oil is already affecting so many fishing villages and marine life in the area. Your clean-up team needs supervision. You just don’t hire people to clean – safety measures have to be considered.

The Guimaras Local Government, Philippine Coast Guards and Greenpeace Volunteers seem to be more aggressive than your group. This is the time to show us your concern, dedication, hard work. Your people must go to Guimaras and help in the cleaning. Don’t just leave the clean-up to the people of Guimaras – show some presence.

Haven’t we learned from the oil spills around the world. In fact, didn’t we have a recent oil spill this year? Shouldn’t some foresight have been taken by your company in the past for accidents like this that may happen?

We are really racing against time here. The coral reefs, mangrove forests and marine life are already affected. Some rare species like the green and hawksbill turtles and the dugong are threatened. Our pristine white sandy beaches in the area have already been tarnished. Should we wait for the oil contaminated waters to reach the shores of Boracay and the likes?

This is surely not the time to blame but to take action. The President has began her task of calling different sectors of the government to take part. She has also announced fund allocations. Let’s hope they do a good job and prove to us that they can work efficiently to save our precious shores, the pride of the Philippines.