Referendum vs oil depot ordinance filed

Referendum vs oil depot ordinance filed
Terms of reference for risk assessor to be finalized
BY LOUELLA D. DESIDERIO and JOSE BIMBO F. SANTOS, Business World

A PEOPLE’S INITIATIVE was filed with the Commission on Elections (Comelec) yesterday that seeks to repeal an ordinance allowing the continued operation of the Pandacan oil depot as well as other medium and heavy industries in Manila.

Councilor Lourdes Isip-Garcia told reporters at the Liwasang Bonifacio Shrine yesterday that the group, led by the organizations Manileño Kontra Abuso and Tanggulan ng mga Barangay Kagawad sa Tondo Foreshore (TABAK-TF), filed the petition due to the inaction of the Manila city council on the petition against the ordinance signed by over 2,000 residents and filed on June 23.

“The deadline for the city council was to act on it until July 23 but it was never included in the agenda [nor was it] referred to a committee,” she told reporters.

The petition seeks to repeal Ordinance 8187 which mainly allowed the continued operation of the oil depot in Pandacan by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., Caltex Philippines (renamed Chevron Philippines, Inc.) and Petron Corp.

“Our aim is very clear. We are fighting for the relocation of the Pandacan oil depot to the countryside where it will not pose any danger or harm to people, or cause any potential destruction to property,” TABAK-TF President Danilo C. Isiderio said yesterday.

He noted that the filing of the petition with Comelec is a form of redress provided for under Republic Act 6735 or the Initiative and Referendum Act, which allows registered voters to propose, enact, amend or repeal an ordinance through a petition with at least 1,000 signatures.

With their petition filed before the Comelec, Mr. Isiderio said the commission is expected to set up signature stations to determine the holding of a plebiscite.

Manila has a total of 1,020,144 registered voters. A plebiscite will only be held if the number of collected signatures reaches 10% of the registered voters or 102,014, including at least 3% of the registered voters per district.

Ordinance 8187 was signed into law by Mayor Alfredo S. Lim on May 28. It overturned Ordinances 8027 and 8119. Ordinance 8027, enacted in 2001, reclassified Sta. Ana and Pandacan as commercial from industrial areas and ordered the removal of the oil depot.

Passed by the council in 2006, Ordinance 8119 imposed a ban on medium and heavy industries and gave affected businesses seven years to vacate the city.

Sought for comment, Councilor Arlene W. Koa, author of Ordinance 8187, said that the people’s initiative would allow residents to speak for themselves on the local law.

“Let us just wait for the outcome of the people’s initiative. From the way I see it, the people of Manila are happy with the ordinance,” she said in a text message yesterday.

For his part, Chevron Communication Manager Antonio V. Nebrida said in a separate text message yesterday that they would have to first read and study the petition before giving a comment.

Roberto S. Kanapi, Shell vice-president for communications, also said yesterday they would defer comment pending receipt of a copy of the petition.

Risk assessor

Meanwhile, the panel that will draft the terms of reference for the commissioning of a third-party risk assessor for the Pandacan oil terminal in Manila will convene next week.

“We really plan to finish this as soon as possible so by the first week of September the panel will already meet for the terms of reference of the project,” Mr. Kanapi, said in a separate interview.

The panel will have representatives from the Church, the local government of Manila, Department of Energy, Department of Interior and Local Government and from the academe, namely, the University of the Philippines and the University of the Asia and the Pacific.

The panel will also have a representative from the Social Justice Society, which earlier filed a petition that seeks to stop the implementation of an ordinance allowing the operations of the three oil companies in Pandacan.

Mr. Kanapi said they have yet to receive confirmation from the Church after sending out a request to Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal B. Rosales.

The group is also studying which entity to tap as third-party risk assessor.

“We now have short-listed four, but we plan to get at least 10 names. These are mostly foreign companies who are experts in safety and risk assessments,” Mr. Kanapi said.

“We have no estimates yet on the budget and also the time lines, but we plan to finish this as soon as possible,” he added.

Chevron, Petron and Shell announced in June the formation of a third-party risk assessor in the hopes of finally settling fears regarding the safety and pollution measures at the oil depot.

The oil companies have repeatedly stressed that the depot meets international and Philippine standards on safety and pollution controls.

OMBUDSMAN ASKED ‘Suspend Manila mayor, his vice over depot’

OMBUDSMAN ASKED
‘Suspend Manila mayor, his vice over depot’

By Edson C. Tandoc Jr.
Philippine Daily Inquirer

MANILA, Philippines—A militant group on Monday asked the Office of the Ombudsman to suspend Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim and Vice Mayor Isko Moreno for allowing the continued operation of the Pandacan oil depot.

In a seven-page complaint filed with the Office of the Ombudsman, lawyer Virgilio Cabigao and eight other members of the Advocates for Environmental and Social Justice (AESJ) said Lim and Moreno violated their oath of office and that their decision was prejudicial to public interest.

The AESJ is opposing the ordinance recently passed by the city government which reclassified the area where the oil depot is located as an industrial area. The move, according to the group, is contrary to the ruling of the Supreme Court which upheld the area’s classification as a commercial zone, thus banning the operations of the oil facility.

The AESJ said in its complaint that the passage of the city ordinance “is mind-boggling” because it places “in danger the safety and general welfare of the city and its inhabitants.”

The group asked that Lim and Moreno not only be placed under preventive suspension, but also be dismissed from public office.

Manila Archishop Cardinal Gaudencio Rosales Vows To Continue The Fight Against Ordinance 8187

Manila archbishop declares ‘Ecology Sunday’ every month
By Evelyn Macairan, July 5, 2009, The Philippine Star

MANILA, Philippines – To further demonstrate its officials’ objection to the continued operation of the Pandacan oil depot, the Archdiocese of Manila has declared every third Sunday of every month as Ecology Sunday.

The CBCPNews, the official news service provider of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), reported yesterday that Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales dedicated the third Sunday of every month to promoting the cause of ecology.

The archdiocese’s Ecology Desk released guidelines on observing Ecology Sundays in the parishes.

Rosales said the archdiocese should implement activities to educate the people on the current environmental issues, particularly those surrounding a city ordinance allowing the oil depot’s stay.

“Let us engage in a catechesis of the integrity of creation by ‘circles of discernment’ in our parishes and school’s ministry,” Rosales said.

The archdiocese strongly objected to the passage and implementation of Ordinance 7177 that allowed the continued operation of the Pandacan oil depot and other establishments that are believed to be pollutive industries.

In a letter earlier sent to Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim, Rosales and three other bishops explained that “the poison these industries emit and produce will affect not only our city, but will have greater impact on the lives and well-being of people in other areas. Air and water pollution travel fast, and the effects could be more catastrophic for people along the slopes of Antipolo City or the banks of the Pasig River.”

Ordinance 7177 is also against the laws on Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act, Rosales said.

Last month, the archdiocese issued a pastoral letter urging every parish and school under his archdiocese to start a signature campaign against the oil facility.

Rosales also appealed to the people to pray for the abolition of the city ordinance. “Our political leaders should be reminded of their role to ensure the safety and security of our people,” he said.

MANILA MAYOR ALFREDO LIM COMMITS POLITICAL SUICIDE

FIRST PERSON – OPINION COLUMN WRITTEN BY ALEX MAGNO
THE PHILIPPINE STAR, JUNE 4, 2009

Suicidal

Manila mayor Alfredo Lim and his sidekick Isko Moreno are dragging their city to the pits.

In a cheap stunt, Lim played Pontius Pilate and bowed to the will of his own mob. He asked the crowd if he should sign a new ordinance that invites hazardous and highly polluting industries into the city, his own mob approved. At their well-rehearsed command, Lim signed an absurd ordinance that reverses all the previous efforts to regenerate the City of Manila and condemn the capital to becoming one large Smokey Mountain.

He might as well have declared his city to be the toilet bowl of the metropolis and fully opened its doors to the suicidal but profitable business of importing toxic wastes.

Everywhere else, old and gracious cities are cleaning up their urban cores, making them more habitable and raising property values in the process. They are exporting industries farther away from population centers — for health as well as for economic reasons.

When cities improve on the quality of life of their urban cores, they attract more productive citizens, sunrise industries, better commerce and exponentially higher property values. The cities earn more when they become more habitable. When they earn more, they make their cities even more habitable. It is a virtuous cycle.

Lim and his cabal, on the other hand, by sheer shortsightedness, are dragging their city into the quagmire. By making Manila a more hazardous place to live in, they will attract only scum, depress economic activity and property prices, force the city government to spend more on health care for the miserable.

If they were only a bit more sophisticated, Lim and his cabal might have learned from the experience of Rockwell or Eastwood City. Had both remained sites for dirty industries, these places would have economically stagnated.

Right smack in the City of Manila, they might have learned something from the decision to convert the San Lazaro racetrack into a major property development. That brought commerce and higher-niche taxpayers into an area that would have otherwise simply degenerated.

But Lim and his cabal do not seem to have a clear strategy for managing the city’s future.

When he took over City Hall in June 2007, Manila had a positive cash position of P2.6 billion. By December that same year, the city government had a deficit of P1.4 billion. Lim and his cabal do not seem to have the forward-looking financial skills to manage a modern city. Because of that, they are now dragging the city to a more primitive state, something akin to the city that outraged Charles Dickens two centuries ago: a city of filth and crime and despair.

In order to save whatever income the city gets from perilously hosting the fuel dumps, Lim’s cabal passed a resolution allowing heavily polluting and hazardous industries into the city. They seem to think that by making the city even less habitable, they will be saving jobs and preserving revenues.

No proposition in urban planning supports this strange thought. Property prices will be depressed. Commerce will be shooed away. Taxpayers will relocate. In the long run, a dying city will not possibly earn more.

In a word, there is no surer way of killing the City of Manila than to enforce this new ordinance. It is an ordinance that will favor three oil companies and doom the city’s future.

The other reasons advanced to sustain this ordinance are just as flawed.

The relocation of the Pandacan refineries will not cause unemployment. The highly skilled workers of oil depot would likely follow the relocation of the facility to Harbor City, which is just a short but safer distance away from the existing site.

At Harbor City, the proposed relocation site, the depot will be close to the sea. The tanks could be submerged to lessen the damage caused by any mishap. More modern handling equipment could be acquired to lessen environmental damage. The former mayor of Manila promised the oil companies that they could reclaim as much land as they want from the bay, the farther out the better.

International agencies estimate that a conflagration at the oil depot could cause a Tier 3 calamity. The stockpile could burn for weeks and even months, enveloping the whole metropolis in a toxic cloud.

Mayor Lim says that the depot is safe because it is part of a no-fly zone. That is not very reassuring. Manhattan Island was a no-fly zone. The Pentagon is in a no-fly zone. Both were attacked by terrorists in 2001.

Mayor Lim says that in its century of existence, no disaster has happened at the depot. That is faulty argument. In basic logic, we are taught that the fact that the sun has risen the past million mornings is not acceptable proof that the sun will rise tomorrow. The Pentagon, we will remember, was never attacked before September 11, 2001.

The encompassing ordinance allowing every variety of hazardous industry into the city to conceal the fact that the city government is acting to favor the three oil giants imposes great opportunity costs for Manila. It denies the city the opportunity to regenerate.

This ordinance harms not only Manilans. By condemning the inner city into a cesspool, this ordinance harms the entire metropolis. It will dirty the Pasig River beyond relief. It will thicken the toxic haze that already envelopes the capital region.

There are other legal and constitutional issues here. But we leave those for the courts to consider.

Mayor Fred Lim………the pathological liar

LIM TO VETO OIL DEPOT ORDINANCE
By Sandy Araneta – Philippine Star April 02, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines – Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim vowed yesterday to veto a draft city ordinance seeking to allow the retention of the Pandacan oil depot.

Speaking to reporters at Manila City Hall, Lim said he was not consulted about the proposed ordinance, which is still pending at the Manila City Council.

“I also stated if the draft (Ordinance 7177) reaches my table and I see that it contravenes the ruling of the Supreme Court, then I will veto it,” he said.

“Attempts to link me to the issue on the city ordinance reclassifying the land use of the portions of land where Pandacan oil depots are located, into a commercial zone and implicitly granting the big three oil companies their continued operation in the area, are so dubious in terms of timing and intent, not to mention very misleading in content,” Lim added.

Lim said Ordinance 8027, passed on Nov. 20, 2001; the memorandum of understanding between the Department of Energy and the City of Manila extending the period of their stay at the Pandacan oil depot for another six months; and Ordinance 8119, passed in June 2006, further extending the oil firms’ stay to seven years were approved by his predecessor, now Environment Secretary Lito Atienza.

“To briefly discuss the above-mentioned ordinances authored and passed by then and now Councilors Joy Dawis-Asuncion, Ma. Lourdes ‘Bonjay’ Isip-Garcia, Manuel Zarcal, who are now acting as saviors and crusaders of the issue, which in truth and in fact have been created by themselves, it would be deemed that their crusade to stop the oil depots now is in conflict with what they have proposed and passed during the previous administration,” he said.

Lim said draft Ordinance 7177 was meant to benefit other companies like Philippine Match Co. (Phimco) Industries, Inc., Unilever Philippines, San Miguel Gas Plant, Manila Plastic Co.

Philmco made the request initially to be granted to stay in Manila, he added.

Lim said the big three oil companies were mentioned to create a big controversy.

Lim said Ordinance 8027 reclassified certain portions of Pandacan and Punta, Sta. Ana from industrial to commercial, and owners of industrial firms were given six months to move out.

Civil society group sues Manila dads

The civil society group Social Justice Society (SJS) filed yesterday an administrative complaint before the Office of the Ombudsman against the 20 Manila councilors who supported draft Ordinance 7177.

The complainants are SJS legal counsel Vladimir Alarique Cabigao, Rhodele Gabac, Joel Escandor, Aida Martija, all officers and members of Advocates for Environmental and Social Justice.

The SJS sued Manila Councilors Arlene Koa, Ernesto Dionisio, Erick Ian Nieva, Moises Lim, Jesus Fajardo, Rolando Valeriano, Carlo Lopez, Ernesto Isip Jr., John Martin Nieto, Edward Maceda, Victoriano Melendez, Maria Sheilah Lacuna-Pangan, Louisito Chua, Josefina Siscar, Raymund Yupangco, Roderick Valbuena, Luciano Veloso, Danilo Victor Lacuna Jr., Salvador Philip Lacuna and John Russel Benedict Ibay.

The complainants said that on March 5, Koa filed with the city council a draft ordinance seeking to amend Ordinance 8027 by reverting to industrial classification the land use of the Pandacan oil depot.

The complainants said Ordinance 8027 was already upheld by the Supreme Court as a valid exercise of the police power of the city government.

The draft ordinance was passed on second reading by all the respondents on March 19, the complaint added.

“The foregoing act of respondents, of circumventing the (Supreme Court’s) decision by enacting an amending ordinance to Ordinance 8027, was made in bad taste and in bad faith,” read the complaint.

The petitioners said they requested for official transcripts of the proceedings but were never provided with copies.

Rosales to Lim: Intervene with oil depot issue
By Dennis Carcamo – Philippine Star March 25, 2009 02:27 PM

MANILA, Philippines — More than 70,000 residents who could be affected by the continued stay of the Pandacan Oil Depot were not consulted by local lawmakers regarding the matter, Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales revealed today.

In a letter to Manila mayor Alfredo Lim, Rosales said residents of Punta, Sta. Ana, living near the oil depots were not informed of the city council’s plan to amend the zoning ordinance that will allow hazardous industries to operate in the area.

“They say that there was no consultation with them…their side on the matter was not considered,” Rosales said.

He also advised Lim to intervene before the council passes the proposed measure, which could have detrimental effects to the environment and the health of the people living in the area.

“Hastily acting on these amendments may only prove detrimental and more costly in the long run,” Rosales said.

BELOW IS THE LETTER OF CARDINAL GAUDENCIO ROSALES TO MANILA MAYOR ALFREDO LIM ABOUT CITY ORDINANCE 7177

Archdiocese of Manila Ministry on Ecology
Caritas Manila Compound
2002 Jesus St., Pandacan, Manila, Philippines
Contact Nos. (+632) 5623470
Telefax: (+632) 5619975
E-mail: ecology_rcam@yahoo.com

May 19, 2009

Honorable Alfredo Lim
Mayor
City of Manila

Dear Mayor Lim,

We, the bishops and priests of the Archdiocese of Manila in behalf of our flock and your constituents, write with respect to disturbing developments in the beautiful City of Manila. We are deeply disturbed over the passage of Ordinance 7177 which allows the continued operation and establishment of pollutive and highly pollutive industries in your City. We believe that in this day and age, these industries have no more place in the premier city of our country.

First, we are concerned over the safety, security, and well-being of residents in the affected areas of Sta. Ana and Pandacan. A massive conflagration, a terrorist attack, and an uncontrolled gas leak could easily wipe out a large number of the more than 80,000 residents living in the affected areas. We are also mindful of the deleterious effects of air and water pollution on the people in the affected areas, most of whom belong to the lower sectors of society. No amount of economic or financial gain, much less the 66 million that the City could collect from these industries, could ever answer for the countless human lives who could potentially perish from a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. That amount certainly will not be enough to compensate 80,000 lives, 40,000 lives, 10,000 lives, let alone a hundred lives.

Second, we are concerned over the safety, security, and well-being of people in adjoining cities and municipalities. The poison that these industries emit and produce will affect not only your City, but will have greater impact on the lives and well-being of people in other areas. Air and water pollution travel fast, and the effects could be more catastrophic for people along the slopes of Antipolo City or the banks of the Pasig River.

Third, Ordinance No. 7177 will negate whatever gains that have been achieved in the area of clean air, clean water, and land use legislation. It is ironic that while the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act command the phase-out of pollutive industries in the metropolis, the City Council would even go to the extent of allowing these industries to prosper in your City. Talk about respect for the rule of law. Do the councilors now think that they are above the rule of law which you have painstakingly espoused during your stint as Senator of the Republic and Mayor of the City?

Fourth, the passage of Ordinance No. 7177 shows extreme insolence and disrespect by the City Council of the Highest Court of the Land. While the City Council may have been within its rights to enact such an ordinance, the timing stinks, coming as it does on the heels of the Supreme Court decision kicking out the oil depots. What gave the councilors the right to make a mockery of the SC decision by immediately rushing an ill-conceived ordinance? Why did they enact the ordinance earlier when the SC was still adjudicating the case? The SC would not have wasted its time deciding a case that will be rendered moot and academic in the end.

We trust that you will remain true to your word that you will veto Ordinance 7177. Having been Senator and Secretary of the Republic, we believe that you will take the health and safety of the people as your number 1 priority . Please don’t fail us.

Yours sincerely,

(SGD.) +GAUDENCIO B. CARDINAL ROSALES
(with signatures of more than 100 priests and bishops)

Lim allows oil depot to stay
By Evelyn Macairan – The Philippine Star May 29, 2009 12:00 AM

MANILA, Philippines – Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim signed yesterday a new city ordinance to allow oil companies to continue operating at the Pandacan Oil Depot and other industries to stay in the city, despite apprehensions over possible terrorist attacks and accidents.

Lim signed Ordinance 7177, which amends Ordinance 8119, creating a Medium Industrial Zone and Heavy Industrial Zone, as residents and supporters of the retention of the Pandacan Oil Depot cheered the signing.

During the 10-day
period he was given to decide on whether he should veto or approve the new city ordinance, Lim assured residents that he consulted all the concerned stakeholders and pondered over their respective concerns.

“If we can strike a balance between the right of the people to a balanced and healthy environment vis-à-vis the right to livelihood and sustainable development, then we must do so. There is no perfect world. Everything must be compromised to some degree to best suit the needs of most and not to satisfy the demand of a few or fears of some, especially if it is unfounded. I empathize with the fears of those advocating for the disapproval of Ordinance 7177, such as the fear of a disaster waiting to happen because of possible terrorist attacks and environmental concerns,” he said.

“However, I firmly believe that we need not borrow from the future, specially if what we are going to borrow is fear. We should not be ruled by fear specially because these speculations and apprehensions may not even happen,” Lim added.

Lim admitted that deciding on the fate of the ordinance was one of the most difficult decisions he had to make since he became mayor in 2007. He also stressed that the welfare of the people and not politics was his primary consideration.

Ordinance 7177 amended Ordinance No. 8027 by reverting to industrial classification the land use of the Pandacan Oil Depot.

The new ordinance will benefit Chevron Philippines Inc. (formerly Caltex Philippines Inc), Petron Corp. and Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp., and other heavy- and medium-scale industries in Manila.

A majority of 20 councilors voted to pass the ordinance, while the 14 minority councilors tried to block it.

Once signed by Lim, the ordinance would take effect 15 days after its publication in accordance with law.

In its 2007 ruling, the Supreme Court had ordered the closure of the 36-hectare Pandacan depot “to protect the residents of Manila from the catastrophic devastation that will surely occur in case of a terrorist attack on the Pandacan terminal.”

“No reason exists why such a protective measure should be delayed,” said the decision penned by Justice Renato Corona.

The SC decision upheld Manila City Ordinance 8027 issued during the time of then Mayor Lito Atienza, which called for the clearing of the Pandacan district – classified as a residential area – of the terminals of the three big oil companies.

Lim argued that Ordinance 7177 would not contradict the SC ruling, nor does it run in conflict with Ordinance 8027 and 8119.

He said the city government stands to lose P100 million every year from the business license fees and real property tax of the affected industries, inclusive of the three oil companies.

He is also worried that if he vetoed the ordinance, it could trigger an exodus of foreign investors. “This could send the wrong signal to our investors that we are not protecting their continuous tenure in the areas where they operate.”

Lim said if the oil firms relocate the depot to Batangas, for instance, it could trigger an increase of P2 to P3 in the price of crude oil and gasoline.

Manila Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales and three other bishops signed and sent a letter asking Lim to veto the controversial ordinance on the grounds that it violated environmental laws and the massive damage that may occur once there is a terrorist attack or explosion.

Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso also took potshots at former mayor and now Environmental Secretary Lito Atienza.

Domagoso said that Atienza, who criticized the law, failed to implement the re-zoning ordinance that would have paved the way for the removal of the oil depot a long time ago.

Malacañang welcomed the decision of Lim to sign the controversial ordinance.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita recalled that President Arroyo ordered her Cabinet officials to give “inputs” to Lim during a meeting in Pandacan on Tuesday to help him decide whether to sign or veto the ordinance.

He said the Supreme Court ruling on the issue noted that the final decision on the matter of the oil depots was up to the local government.

“And therefore, the action on Resolution 7177 on the Council of Manila is something called for and consistent with the SC decision,” Ermita said. “So all we did was give inputs to be the basis of a decision of Mayor Lim.”

He said the Cabinet members, including Trade Secretary Peter Favila and Labor Secretary Marianito Roque, warned of the economic repercussions of transferring the oil depots.

Ermita said the opposition of Atienza was understandable but he cited the assurance of the oil companies that the depots would eventually be transferred to another location in the future.

“Everything is water under the bridge. As to the timetable of the phasing out of the oil depots, that is something that the mayor and the oil companies would have to discuss,” he said.

DENR hits new ordinance

The DENR is preparing to question the legality of the controversial ordinance that would allow the permanent stay of oil depots in Pandacan.

Atienza said they are now inclined to study the possible violation of the ordinance with the provisions of the Constitution in relation to the protection of the environment.

He said that Ordinance 7177 is “ill-crafted and illogical” as it will only allow and welcome the permanence of “highly pollutive and extremely hazardous” industries in Manila.

“He chose to sign an illogical, irrational, illegal ordinance. Now, we’ll go to the final details of what he (Lim) signed to protect the environment, and the general public, especially the people of Pandacan,” Atienza said.

“We will study its possible violation with the provisions of the Constitution in relation to the protection of the environment. We now have to defend it in all fora, before the people, and in most probability before the court, the Supreme Court (SC),” he also said.

Atienza insisted that the national government recognizes the final SC decision that the oil depots in Pandacan must be relocated, citing security reasons and risk to life.

“The Constitution guarantees every Filipino the right to a clean and healthy environment. Government officials must ensure that this right is protected at all times. It would be unlawful to allow a railroaded ordinance, which welcomes blatantly defined ‘highly pollutive and extremely hazardous’ industries in Manila. The DENR upholds life as primary in the hierarchy of values,” Atienza stressed.

Atienza likewise has accused Manila majority councilors allied with Lim of “railroading” the ordinance.

Councilor Ma. Lourdes “Bonjay” Isip-Garcia of Manila’s Sixth District, who was one of the staunch opponents of Ordinance 7177, said that she would contest the passage of the law and bring the matter to the highest court.

“We would go up to the Supreme Court to question the validity of Ordinance 7177 as it suffers from serious legal infirmities. We would go up to the Ombudsman to file anti-graft charges against the proponents of Ordinance 7177 for knowingly causing injury to Manilans by exposing them to extremely pollutive and highly hazardous industries and activities.”

Plans are also underway to file an amendatory ordinance on Tuesday to repeal 7177. “I would demand for public hearing which was absent in Ordinance 7177.”

She would also meet with other anti-Ordinance 7177 groups and coordinate with Church officials.

Oil firms welcome new ordinance

The Big 3 oil companies were relieved by the decision of Lim to let them stay in Pandacan.

“We welcome this positive development which allows us to continue to ensure safe, secure and uninterrupted delivery of petroleum products to our customers and contribute to the well-being of our neighbors in Pandacan,” Shell vice president for communications Roberto Kanapi said.

This positive development would enable Shell to decide on its refinery expansion plan for the Philippines.

Shell had been holding back any decision on the expansion project due to the Pandacan issue.

Shell country chairman Edgar Chua told reporters earlier: “Definitely, it would have an impact (on our refinery plans).”

Petron welcomed the decision, but the firm would continue its study on the Pandacan operations, which may eventually be “relocated” sometime in the future.

“We welcome this development as it gives us time to work on a well-conceived program for the scale down and eventual phase out of the facility, with the necessary support of the national and local government,” Petron public affairs manager Virginia Ruivivar said.

In an earlier statement, Petron president Eric Recto said: “We will be discussing with Mayor Lim the schedule of our planned scale-down and eventual phase-out of the Pandacan depot.”

Chevron Philippines Inc. (CPI), in a separate statement, echoed Petron’s stance.

“In the meantime, we recognize that the continuing expansion of economic activities outside of NCR, as well as the growth of the residential area in Pandacan, necessitates that at some future time, the facility will have to be moved out. CPI will therefore continue with its current studies and plans to identify a suitable alternative site bearing the similar strategic characteristics of Pandacan,” CPI Manager for policy, government and public affairs Mark Quebral said.

Quebral said CPI appreciates the decision of Mayor Lim to approve Ordinance 7177. He described it as a move “that saves businesses, communities, workers and their families from massive economic disruption.”

Foreign businessmen in the country also lauded the city government of Manila for signing Ordinance 7177, saying that it will help them promote the Philippines as a good investment destination.

“We are pleased with the courageous decision of Mayor Alfredo Lim. It is good for the City of Manila. It is good for the country,” the Joint Foreign Chambers of the Philippines (JFC) said in a statement.

“It provides more security for investors and will help us to promote the country as an investment destination better,” the group of foreign businessmen added.

Earlier, Unilever Philippines said it is open to pulling their over P500-million investments in the country if local officials in Manila do not approve Ordinance 7177, which seeks to create zones for medium and heavy industries in the city.

JFC had asked Lim to pass Ordinance 7177 because changing the zoning of the city will be bad for the rest of the country since it will be more difficult to attract potential investors.

“We are firmly of the opinion that companies that comply with all requirements on environment and safety cannot be branded as pollutive and unsafe. The resident companies in that area have complied with all requirements imposed by local government agencies and are adhering to recommendations made by international experts,” JFC said.

JFC said that the “Pandacan issue” subjects not only the oil industry but also other industries to closure and forced relocation on biased decisions of local governments and on the strength of imagined and unproven conclusions of facts – threat to safety, security, health, well-being, etc.

“If local governments spot zone everywhere, industries will not be assured of continuous tenure in the areas in which they operate and this will be a serious disincentive to investments,” JFC said. – With Katherine Adraneda, Donnabelle Gatdula, Elisa Osorio, Paolo Romero