Condo cleanup soon to resume

MANILA, Philippines—The cleanup and rehabilitation of the abandoned West Tower Condominium in Barangay (village) Bangkal, Makati City, will soon resume following the temporary lifting of a cease-and-desist order (CDO) earlier imposed by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on the company hired by residents to clean up the mixture of oil and water that had accumulated in the building’s basement.

The CDO was issued in February against Bensan Industries Inc. (BII), the firm hired by West Tower residents to recover, treat and discharge the wastewater.

In its February 18 decision, the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) said that the BII had failed to conform with the department’s effluent standards despite repeated inspections. It also noted that the firm’s special discharge permit had expired.

However, on April 4, Regional Director Robert Sheen of the DENR-EMB said that the bureau had decided to temporarily lift the order to immediately address the emergency situation at the 22-story condominium.

According to him, the move was in response to BII’s twin motions for intervention and the lifting of the CDO.

Sheen said the BII had a legal interest to pray for the lifting of the CDO since it had also been hired by the Lopez-owned First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) to siphon the wastewater from West Tower.

The FPIC is the operator of the country’s largest commercial pipeline, which was found to be the source of the oil that had been leaking into the building’s basement since July.

The discovery of the leak subsequently led to the closure of the condominium amid fears of an explosion.

The DENR-EMB, however, reminded BII that the lifting of the CDO was “subject to conditions and [the firm’s] conformity with DENR standards.”

Among the conditions set by the DENR-EMB include an application from the FPIC for a “Discharge Permit and Permit to Transport” before the operation of a modified oil water separator system.

The bureau also required FPIC and BII to submit a hauling and treatment scheme, including all the requirements set by the DENR-EMB, to carry out and sustain their compliance with environmental laws.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court justices are scheduled to conduct an inspection of the FPIC pipeline on April 15.

The justices, in an earlier en banc resolution, said that they wanted to “determine the veracity of the claim of architect Roberto Dimayuga … that there [were] two additional leaks in the [FPIC] pipeline aside from the leak found in the vicinity of Bonifacio Street in Makati City.”