Conflicting reports on oil spill clean up
While Guimaras residents affected by the oil spill which occurred four months ago started receiving their compensation claims last week, certain sectors wanted Petron Corporation to go back to the oil spill affected areas to conduct further clean up operations.
Petron in its Ligtas Guimaras website reported that as of the second week of November it has cleaned 100 percent of affected shorelines, collecting around 6,000 metric tons of debris.
It said the report was affirmed by the inspections made by Task Force SOS (Solar 1 Oil Spill), a multi-agency group composed of officials from the Local Government Units, Departments of Health, Environment and Natural Resources, Social Welfare and Development, and the Philippine Coast Guard.
But Vicente Zerrudo, Task Force SOS coordinator, on December 6 informed Governor JC Rahman Nava that there are still traces of bunker oil in five villages of Nueva Valencia, Guimaras that needed to be cleaned up.
Zerrudo identified the five villages as barangays Lapaz, San Roque, Lucmayan, Tando and Cabalagnan.
Zerrudo reported that there is still presence of thick bunker oil hidden under the sand in said areas.
He also reported that around 200 sacks of oily debris were abandoned by Petron in Sitio Sumirib, Brgy. Lapaz.
Zerrudo added, bunker fuel also becomes vastly visible during low tide in certain areas.
Zerrudo also noted that oil spill affected barangays, namely, Sebario, Igcauayan, :Lebas, M. Chavez, Cabano and Suclaran in San Lorenzo town were not totally cleaned.
In his letter to Gov. Nava, Zerrudo recommended that Petron should resume its clean-up operation and also concentrate on areas where mangroves were totally affected.
However, Petron in its Ligtas Guimaras report admitted that it has excluded mangrove areas in their clean up operations "since we were advised by experts not to touch these highly sensitive ecosystems.
It said, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in coordination with the University of the Philippines-Visayas is overseeing the clean-up of the mangrove areas.
Meanwhile, the provincial government of Guimaras reported that it has yet to receive the P800 million financial aid that the national government had committed for its rehabilitation.
Last week, The News Today got hold of information that part of said fund intended for Guimaras was realigned to aid the typhoon victims in Albay.
Albay was hardly devastated by supertyphoon Reming weeks ago.
In a related development, the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (IOPCF) last week initially released some P2 million compensation claims to Guimaras fisherfolks affected by the oil spill disaster.