P110M released to compensate Guimaras fishermen - Petron

An official of Petron Corp. said Tuesday that P110 million has been released to compensate more than 11,000 fishermen from the island-province of Guimaras for their losses in last year’s oil spill. “To date, about P110 million has been released as compensation to the fishermen…For the fishermen alone in the province of Guimaras, a little over 11,000 (fishermen) have been paid, only 250 have yet to receive their check," said Petron health, safety, and environment manager Caloy Tan. Tan could not say why the 250 fishermen had not yet claimed their checks. He added that the claims of resort and fish pond owners Guimaras and about 11,200 fishermen from the nearby province of Iloilo are still being processed. Their claims are not part of the P110 million already released. The International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund, Petron's insurer, has earmarked $330 million to compensate the losses incurred from the oil spill caused by the sinking of M/T Solar 1 off Guimaras in last August last year. Petron had chartered Solar 1 to transfer some 2,000 tons of bunker fuel from Bataan to Zamboanga. Tan noted that while the IOPC has allocated $330 million for the compensation, it doesn’t mean that amount would be paid out. “The amount of compensation will be as per actual they will have to file a claim and prove," he said. Tan said the 11,200 claimant-fishermen from Iloilo are due to be paid after the Holy week. However, he said that the compensation to the Iloilo fishermen would be lower compared to their counterparts in Guimaras because they “are not that affected." Authorities have completed siphoning of the remaining oil from the sunken ship on Monday, paving the way for the execution of a rehabilitation program. More than 9,000 liters of oil were recovered by the ship Allied Shield. National Disaster Coordinating Council executive director Glenn Rabonza said completion of the 21-day siphoning means that Guimaras is safe from a further oil spill as far as MT Solar I is concerned. “With the completion of the oil recovery operations from MT Solar I, this provides a sort of a closure to the MT Solar I (incident), meaning MT Solar I will no longer pose a threat to further oil spill because it has been determined that there is no more oil underneath the ocean," said Rabonza. Defense Secretary Hermogenes Ebdane Jr, who is also chair of the NDCC, said the wreckage of the sunken ship may not recovered because this would entail additional costs. “That will entail additional money if you look at the economics of it. It will be expensive to float it and recover it than let it lie on the floor. Also, I think it is only the US government who has the capability to do that," he said. -GMANews.TV