Oil giant Petron Corp. on Monday admitted responsibility for an oil spill along the southeastern portion of Manila Bay, adding it is ready to take responsibility for the incident.
In a press statement, Petron corporate affairs officer Rafael Ledesma said Petron will take responsibility and assured communities affected by the oil spill that the company will resolve the situation at the soonest possible time.
“We will pursue proper remediation and clean-up of the areas affected, aiming to restore the means of livelihood of the local communities”, Ledesma said. Petron is also ready to face all penalties and charges to be filed and imposed by the Coast Guard, Rosario LGU, and other government agencies “as long as it will undergo due process.”
He added the company will also investigate what caused the leak.
The company’s president Lubin Nepomuceno said Petron they will continue to give assistance to residents affected by the spill.
Earlier, the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) finished conducting a series of pressure tests and found strong evidence that the oil leak came from a Petron pipeline.
Coast Guard public affairs chief Commander Armando Balilo said members of the PCG Marine Environmental Protection Command (MEPCOM) and personnel from the Municipality of Rosario on Sunday conducted a water push pressure test procedure to determine the presence of a leak. The results of the tests pointed to the Petron pipeline.
“This latest result will strengthen our first findings last Friday that there’s really a leak that is continuously flowing out of the submerged pipeline of Petron”, Balilo said.
More than 500,000 liters of diesel fuel have spilled into the southeastern portion of Manila Bay affecting four coastal towns in Cavite province.
Commodore Joel Garcia, commander of MEPCOM, has meanwhile confirmed the agency is preparing to charges of Obstruction of Justice against the owner of M/T Makisig and the management of Petron Corporation for preventing his personnel from getting oil samples from the ship and pipeline upon the discovery of the spill.
He added that since Petron already admitted their fault, they may also file violation of Republic Act 9275 (Clean Water Act) and Presidential Decree 979 (Marine Pollution Law of the Philippines) against the company depending on the extent of the damage caused by the spill.
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Photo: JC Cahinhinan
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