Error defers Pandacan depot’s fate

An error in the title of a draft ordinance led to the postponement Thursday of the passage on third and final reading of a proposed measure that would force oil companies to move out of the Pandacan area by January 2016.

Draft Ordinance No. 7461 aims to change the classification of the area where the oil depot is located from an industrial to a commercial zone. As a result, oil companies will have to transfer their refineries or change the nature of their operations.

Businesses that are allowed in the commercial zone include furniture manufacturers and large-scale warehousing. Oil refineries, on the other hand, fall under heavy industries.

The Manila City Council was forced to defer the approval of the draft ordinance after councilors spotted an error in the title. Instead of “an ordinance amending Section 2 of Ordinance No. 8187 …,” it read “an ordinance amending Section 2 of Ordinance 8119 as amended by Ordinance No. 8187 …”

Ordinance No. 8119 is the Manila zoning ordinance that classified the Pandacan depot area as a commercial zone and gave out-of-zone businesses until 2013 to move out.

It was amended by Ordinance No. 8187, in 2009 which created heavy industrial zones, allowing the oil depot to continue operating in the area.