FPIC: Makati oil spill cleanup 70 percent complete

The Lopez-owned First Philippine Holdings Corp. (FPIC) has said the cleanup of an oil spill at West Tower condominium in Makati City was 70 percent complete in response to a statement from the city government that remediation, not reopening its oil pipeline, should be its first concern.

Catherine Colmenares, FPIC community relations officer, said that to date, the company has cleaned up 70 percent of the oil that leaked from its pipeline at Barangay Bangkal in July 2010.

“Out of an estimated 1.8 million liters [that leaked], 1.2 million liters have been extracted since remediation started last year,” she said in a phone interview the other day.

On Friday, Makati Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. announced that around 500,000 to 700,000 liters of petroleum were still believed to be contaminating the groundwater and soil of Barangay Bangkal after oil leaked from FPIC’s 117-km-long pipeline into the basement of the condominium building.

“FPIC in particular needs to be reminded that it has a responsibility to restore the conditions in Barangay (village) Bangkal before the city government discovered the leaks in their pipelines, the existence of which [it] initially denied,” Binay had said in a statement.

His reaction was in response to a statement by FPIC that the Court of Appeals, in a resolution, had recommended the reopening of the pipeline should the company be able to secure a certification of safety from the energy department secretary.

According to Colmenares, “It really is our priority to clean the impacted area in Bangkal. Our multiphase extraction system is in operation there 24/7. The cleanup system is endorsed by the Interagency Committee on Environmental Health which includes the city government.”

She added that they also have an air-quality monitoring system in place in the area, the results of which are submitted and validated by the city government.

She said that extraction of the spilled oil would take only two to three more years while the rehabilitation or replacement of damaged equipment at West Tower was also 90 percent complete.