Province girds for oil spill

Sure, we still have not been contaminated yet by the bunker fuel from M/T Solar I which sun off Guimaras Island. But there is imperative need for preventive measures. Anticipation is the name of the game.

And Gov. Joseph Marañon managed to convey to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo the urgency of fund assistance so fund the provincial and local government units' preparations to prevent the oil slick from reaching our shores.

The windom of such move may be gleaned from the latest reports that the oil had already damaged several barangays in Concepcion and Ajuy in Iloilo.

In short, one must not wait for the threat to develop into actual situation. The oil booms and other absorbent barriers that are being setup by the local government units are urgently needed.

I hope, however, that the provincial government buy in advance the protective equipment needed by those who may eventually be involved in the cleanup drive.

There will be those who may oppose the move. After all, the oil has not yet reached our shoreline. But our anti-oil workers need not wait for their supplies when the oil will reach us. Now, there is no harm in their being equipped with neoprene gloves, oil resistant boots, googles and masks. These can be used by firemen even when tackling chemical fires.

The P5 million given by the President to the province can best be used by providing the necessary equipment for our workers before the actual eventuality. After all, the seepage of oil from the tanker continues daily despite the contrary claims by Petron.

I also think that Guimaras Gov. JC Rahman Nava should ask the legal consultants of the province to start already preparations for a suit against Petron and Sunshine Maritime Corp. for a class suit.

The way it looks, Petron will try to shy away from picking up the cost of damages to the affected population of Guimaras. Even the firm that owns the Solar I may not be able to pay the cost of the clean-up and the damage, both to the people and the province of Guimaras.

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It is actually a correct move on the part of the police to submit to the City Prosecutor rape with homicide charges against the two young suspects in the death of Allen Hope Barcoma.

Both Christian Yema and Vicente Nuñez, Jr. alias Junjun had submitted their respective and often contradictory versions of the incident. The two tried to exulpate themselves from authorship of the rape with homicide.

Now, the investigator themselves cannot determine who are actually to be charged. That's the task of the prosecutor.

This is no upmanship game. It's not whether the National Bureau of Investigation or the police solved the case. The question is to submit all the findings to the prosecutor who will determine againt whom the charge will be filed.

And that's exactly my recommendation on the case of SP board member Lorenzo Suatengco and Marvin Ortiz involved in the death of school teacher Augusto de Leon at the corner of San Sebastian and Lacson Streets recently.

Suatengco recently apologized to the SP for having in some way tarnished its prestige. And he tried to deflect complicity from the allegations of having engaged in a drag race with Ortiz. But that is not the proper forum.

I am asking the police to submit their accident report and the output of their investigation to the city prosecutor's office. It is up to the latter to determine whether to charge Suatengco and Ortiz, drop the charge against either one of them, or simply arrange for the family of the deceased to receive compensation for their expenses for the victim plus what he could earn had he remained alive.

Unless that is done, the public will find themselves frustrated when a powerful scion of a political family escapes indictment simply because he is influential and can count on the support of "friends".

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By whatever language, the raid by the Ernesto Rio Command of the NPA scored a major feat when they divested paramilitary members in Bukidnon of 29 assault rifles.

And no amount of subsequent explanations by the Army spokesman of an encounter and several wounded NPA members carried away by their companions could erase the fact that it was a major debacle.

Cesar Renerio, the NPA spokesman, came up with a different version of the story. That the paramilitary memers of the patrol base in Barangay Boco, outside Valencia City, did not offer any resistance.

Well, he even presented an inventory of the captured weapons - 15 M-14 rfles, 10 Agarands, and four M-16 automatic assault rifles. If there was truly an encounter, as reported by the Army spokesman, that could not have escaped detection by the Valencia PNP and military units who could have immediately rushed reinforcements to the embattled group.

This debacle was compounded by the Wednesday herding by the NPA guerrillas of students, and teachers as well as villagers in Sibugay, Kabasalan town in Zamboanga. As usual, the military was reported to have mounted a "hot pursuit" operation against the fleeing rebels units in both instances. What exactly is hot pursuit was not explained. But if the rebels had, in the case of the Valencia incident, 29 more heavy weapons with them, I wonder how hot is the pursuit.

All these and other incidents only point out that many of our PNP units and military groups often view the problem of insurgency complacently. Until the rebels get the drop on them, then they just surrender peacefully. That's the reality on the ground.*

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