Asia/Pacific News
Lack of Enforcement of Bunker Spill Rules "Criminally Negligent"
Legislators investigating last year's large bunker spill in Iloilo province, the Philippines, have said the failure of government agencies to implement the oil spill compensation law enacted in 2007 amounts to "criminal negligence," Filipino news outlet The Inquirer reports.
The comments were made at a public committee hearing by the representative for Bayan Muna, Neri Colmenares at the provincial capitol in Iloilo City.
Under the Oil Pollution Compensation Act, all oil tankers and oil companies are required to contribute 10 Filipino centavos per litre of imported oil as seed money to an oil pollution fund.
The law was passed a year after the oil tanker Solar I sank off Guimaras Island on Aug. 11, 2006, spilling more than 1.2 million litres of bunker fuel.
But the comments were delivered to officials investigating another large bunker spill which occurred last November as typhoon Yolanda scuttled a National Power Corp. barge spilling almost a million litres of bunkers.
Department of Transportation and Communications officials said there was no collection of the compensation fund because the law's implementing rules and regulations (IRR) had still not been finalised.
"The long delay in drafting an IRR is abnormal," Colmenares said.
"They are actually saving for the oil companies hundreds of millions of pesos and depriving the people a standby fund for pollution compensation. There is no logical explanation," he said.
The Filipino fishing industry said earlier this year it was looking to move away from bunkers to renewable energy.
