Spill source still a mystery–pcg

THE PHILIPPINE Coast Guard (PCG) has yet to determine the source of the oil spill that has turned parts of Manila Bay red and adversely affected at least four Cavite coastal municipalities, contrary to published reports, the PCG spokesperson said yesterday.

Cmdr. Armand Balilo, also chief of the Coast Guard’s public affairs office, said PCG “divers would conduct another operation” to check if the diesel oil flowed out of a submerged pipeline of Petron Corp. or a tanker moored off Rosario, Cavite.

The initial reports that came out on Friday “have yet to be validated,” Balilo told the INQUIRER.

He said the diesel oil in parts of the bay had “started to evaporate.”

Commodore Joel Garcia, head of the Coast Guard Marine Environmental Command (MEC), earlier told reporters a leaking submarine pipeline belonging to Petron had caused the spill.

“Our personnel discovered a leak continuously flowing out of the submerged Petron pipeline,” he had said in a statement. Some MEC personnel also insisted the Petron pipeline was the source of the spill.

On Friday, Cavite Gov. Juanito Remulla observed that “there were no evident signs of a fishkill, no damage to properties, although we are still waiting for the results of marine tests.”

He said that only 90,000 liters of diesel oil had spilled into the waters off the Cavite towns of Rosario, Naic, Tanza and Ternate.

But an aerial survey conducted by the Coast Guard showed an estimated 500,000 liters of diesel may have leached into the bay.

Whether or not the spill will spread further would depend on underwater currents and prevailing winds, Garcia said.

The spill was first spotted some three kilometers off the Rosario coast on Thursday afternoon.

Unlike the bunker fuel that leaked from a ruptured Petron pipeline and clung to the seabed in a July 2010 incident, diesel oil dilutes in water and evaporates faster, Garcia explained.

Meanwhile, the left-leaning fisherfolk group Pambansang Lakas ng Kilusang Mamamalakaya ng Pilipinas (Pamalakaya) urged the government to “compel Petron to compensate the thousands of fishing families adversely affected by the oil spill.”

It also said that “not a single centavo of taxpayer money should be spent on the oil spill cleanup. Petron should shoulder all cleanup costs.”

Pamalakaya information officer Gerry Albert Corpuz described the Coast Guard investigation of the oil spill as a “whitewash.”

In a phone interview, Corpuz said that “initially, the PCG pointed to the Petron pipeline as the source of the oil spill. Now, it is saying another thing.”

He said that like the Coast Guard, Malacañang “wants to save Petron from its liabilities and accountabilities.”

Balilo has denied Corpuz’s allegations against the command.