Environmentalists to Noynoy: Take care of RP ecology

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — An environmental activist group warned that an ecological disaster similar to the recent sinking of an oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico is likely to happen in Philippine waters, saying that the administration of President-elect Benigno Aquino III should protect the marine environment and coastal communities that are in danger of being exploited. Kalikasan People's Network for the Environment (Kalikasan-PNE) said Aquino should cross out the contracts awarded by the administration of outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to corporations that were known to have polluted the environment. The admonition came in the wake of the sinking of British Petroleum-leased deepwater horizon oil rig in the Gulf of Mexico in April, dubbed as the worst oil spill in US history. As of 2009, the Department of Energy (DOE) issued 69 petroleum service contracts covering 28 million hectares of the country’s territory. Twenty one million hectares of these are seascapes and marine areas in critical biodiversity-rich places of the country, including the Visayan Sea, Bohol Sea, Panay Gulf, Sulu Sea, and Palawan Passage. A service contract was awarded by Energy Department to Exxon Mobil to explore and drill for oil and natural gas within 865,000 hectares in the Sulu Sea. The area was estimated to have potential reserves of 1.3 billion to 4.2 billion barrels of oil, Kalikasan-PNE said. Exxon Mobil is ranked by Global Fortune in 2010 as the biggest company in the world. It is also the culprit behind one of the most devastating environmental disasters ever to occur in history - the Valdez disaster, wherein about 40.9 million liters or 250,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled in Alaska. In a statement sent to GMANews.TV, Kalikasan-PNE warned that disaster might strike should Aquino fail to declare a moratorium on oil and gas exploration in biodiversity-rich marine areas and to rehabilitate areas ecologically devastated by oil spills, particularly Guimaras and Antique. Service contracts According to Clemente Bautista, Kalikasan-PNE national coordinator, the increase in the number of petroleum projects is a result of government policy to privatize the energy sector by giving out service contracts to both foreign and multi-national domestic companies to explore and extract oil and gas in the country. The worst marine disasters in recent history were the 2005 oil spill by the National Power Corp. in Semirara; the 2006 Guimaras oil spill by Petron, and the 2008 sinking of the MV Princess of the Stars off the coast of Romblon. Princess of the Stars was transporting the toxic chemical Endosulfan. All victims in those marine disasters have not received justice and compensation, even to this day, as the Arroyo administration lacked a comprehensive rehabilitation program addressing ecological destruction, Kalikasan-PNE alleged. At the same time, it said that no corporation, executive, and government official responsible have so far been held accountable. —Carmela G. Lapeña/VS, GMANews.TV