Depot

Two things could force a massive exodus from Metro Manila.

The first is a strong earthquake, likely from the West Valley Fault, that scientists say should be due soon based on historical pattern. A strong quake could cause massive structural damage and cause deaths in the thousands. Such a quake will overwhelm first responders and will likely leave the urban center without food and water, power and transport for months or even years.

The second is a conflagration at the Pandacan oil depot.

On any given time, the depot holds about 300 million liters of fuel contained in about 20 large tanks. In the event of a major conflagration, caused by accidents or acts of terror, it could take months to completely put out the fire.

Should the stored fuel spill into the Pasig River, the most horrible scenario sees the flames moving as far north as Navotas and even Bataan and as far south as the towns along Laguna de Bay. Years ago, when bunker fuel at the old Rockwell power plant caught fire, it took a month for the conflagration to die down. Bunker fuel is less flammable than the gasoline stored at the Pandacan depot.

When the depots were built, the area was at the edge of the city. Today, Pandacan is second only to the Tondo district in population density. Around the storage tanks, inhaling noxious fumes daily, the people of Pandacan live nearly cheek to cheek.

Manila is the only major city in the world with large fuel depots right at the center of the settlement. That is an anomaly.

Manila mayors tried to solve this dangerous situation for decades, but they were always overwhelmed by the power of the giant oil companies. Each time a relocation of the depot was proposed, the oil companies consistently raised the specter of higher fuel prices. This time around, after the Supreme Court affirmed an earlier city ordinance forcing out the depot, it is Energy Secretary Jericho Petilla who speaks ahead of the oil companies about the impact of relocation on fuel prices.

When terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York that fateful day of September 11, 2001, then Manila Mayor Lito Atienza realized the peril posed by the oil depot on the whole city. He began moving towards the relocation of the depot. In this age of terrorist gangs, nothing could be excluded from the realm of possibility, including an attack on the fuel tanks at Pandacan.

On Atienza’s initiative, the Manila city council finally passed Ordinance 8027 in 2007. This resolution set a timetable for the oil companies to build new storage facilities and fully relocate the depot away from the densely populated city.

Atienza’s initiative had the full backing of the Archbishop of Manila, who saw the virtue of putting primacy on the safety of the community.

Unfortunately, Atienza’s term as mayor ended the same year that ordinance was issued. His successor, Alfredo Lim, was not as keen on relocating the depot. The city council, presided over by Lim’s vice-mayor Isko Moreno, passed a new ordinance (8187) that not only allowed the oil depot to remain in Pandacan. The new ordinance designated Pandacan as a zone for heavy, hazardous and highly polluting industries.

The archbishop of Manila was extremely upset by this new ordinance. This ordinance was willing to sacrifice the lives of residents on the altar of commerce.

Moreno himself went out to invite dirty industries to set up shop at Pandacan.  It seems he was bent on transforming this district into the gates of hell.

The petition filed before the Supreme Court in fact sought Ordinance 8027 to be upheld and Moreno’s Ordinance 8187 to be repudiated for putting the lives of residents in danger. The SC ruling clearly declares the Moreno ordinance, which tries to revoke the Atienza ordinance, unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court orders the three oil companies using the Pandacan depot to submit to the Manila Trial Court Branch 39 a “comprehensive plan and relocation schedule” within 45 days. Atienza interprets the ruling as “ensuring the protection of thousands of lives and property and upholding the legality and good intentions of our Ordinance 8027.”

Isko Moreno is a bizarre politician, however.

As soon as the Supreme Court ruling was announced, Moreno pulls out of his pocket a new ordinance that, like Atienza’s Ordinance 8027, sets a sunset schedule for the oil depot at Pandacan. This allows him to claim victory at the High Court’s decision even as the new ordinance he claims was never published and never involved public consultations. This surprise Moreno ordinance was never part of the deliberations of the Court.

At any rate, with Atienza’s Ordinance 8027 upheld and Moreno’s Ordinance 8187 declared unconstitutional, any new purported ordinance is moot. The countdown for the removal of the giant storage facilities of the oil companies has effectively begun.

It turns out, Chevron and Total have long ago relocated their storage facilities. Petron is developing its Batangas compound to store its oil stocks. Shell is doing the same in its Bataan facility.

In due time, the perilous oil depot, located in the midst of a crowded community, will be gone. With appropriate cleanup, as was done at the old site of the Rockwell power plant, the Pandacan facility can be redeveloped into a modern commercial and residential area.

This was done at the Rockwell site, although there is some issue with where the Lopez group deposited the contaminated topsoil. This was done at the old Sta. Ana racetrack, now renamed The Circuit.

Removing the depot will do wonders for redeveloping Pandacan.