SBMA stops nickel ore unloading following protests

TONS of soil with nickel ore that were unloaded near Leyte pier in Subic Bay Freeport have been covered with tarpaulin.

SUBIC BAY FREEPORT—Officials here have stopped the unloading of soil bearing nickel ore following complaints from environmental advocates against what they said was the use of this free port as a temporary storage area for pollutants.

Roberto Garcia, chair of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA) that governs this former US naval base, said the unloading of soil with nickel ore from a distressed Indonesian ship to another had been stopped.

The move came after the group Agham Advocates of Science and Technology for the People said the Indonesian cargo ship Pax Phoenix, docked here since August, had dumped 50,000 metric tons of nickel “putting people and the environment at risk.”

“Residents near the area are complaining about the reddish dust from the dried dumped nickel. Almost entirely, the community is already covered with reddish dust,” said Maria Finesa Cosico, secretary general of Agham, in a phone interview with the Inquirer.

Garcia, however, said the cargo ship did not dump nickel ore but was allowed to unload and transfer soil, with a “small quantity of nickel ore,” to another ship.

He said the ship’s load of soil had been soaked in water and the crew had to unload and dry it before transferring it to another vessel.

He said the SBMA allowed the unloading after the vessel’s owner obtained the required documents from the SBMA Ecology Center.

“Under naval law, we have to extend assistance to ships that have encountered an emergency. This cargo ship made an arrangement with us and it obtained the necessary permit from the ecology center,” he said.

He said the SBMA received complaints over the reported dust in the area but reiterated “these particles [of dust] were not pollutants, as reported by the ecology center.”

According to Garcia, the SBMA sent personnel to the area to stop the unloading of soil until the vessel’s crew could ensure that  the operation would not spread dust.

“We’ve already done some mitigating measures [to control the spread of dust] and the unloading was already stopped,” Garcia told the Inquirer on Friday.

He said the area where the Indonesian cargo ship is docked is classified as industrial. He said the ecology center had yet to allow the cargo ship to resume its unloading operation.

But Cosico said SBMA officials made a wrong decision in allowing the unloading of nickel ore, even if the ship had proper documents.