Vice Mayor Moreno, councilors ‘can’t go unpunished’ over depot

THANKS, BUT NO TANKS The Pandacan oil depot may soon be gone now that the Supreme Court has spoken. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA

The Manila city councilors and other officials who were behind the 2009 ordinance that allowed the continued operation of the Pandacan oil depot should not “go unpunished,” now that the Supreme Court has ruled that what they did was unconstitutional.

This was the position of a lawyer who led the petition against the ordinance, saying complaints would soon be filed in the Office of the Ombudsman against Vice Mayor Isko Moreno, the presiding officer of the council, and the local lawmakers who passed the measure reclassifying that area in Pandacan as a heavy industry zone to allow the depot to remain.

“I am very happy about the decision. It could not have gone the other way around because the position of the City of Manila was skewed from the very beginning, bereft of logic and reason and legally weak,” Vladimir Cabigao said Wednesday in an online interview.

Cabigao noted that once the Supreme Court ruling becomes final, his group would go after the politicians who supported the measure.

“The next thing to do is to file an administrative case against Vice Mayor Moreno and the rest of the councilors who supported the unconstitutional ordinance. It is unconstitutional, therefore, it is illegal. The illegality of the act was very evident from the very start and raises questions as to the motives of the councilors and the vice mayor why they initiated an ordinance that is contrary to the welfare of the people,” he said.

“We would take them to the Ombudsman to make them accountable for their illegal act, to make them realize that what they did would not go unpunished because it was an unprecedented irresponsible act of public officials,” he said.

Moreno not worried

Reached for comment, Moreno said he would rather focus on the challenges facing Pandacan residents than worry about Cabigao’s plans to sue him.

“The Supreme Court decision was actually a victory for us because what we have always been after is the safety of Manila residents,” Moreno said. “Now we have to prepare for future challenges, such as how to redevelop that area. There are also informal settlers and disenfranchised employees who will need our help.”

Cabigao is a nephew of the late Manila Vice Mayor Felicisimo Cabigao and a longtime resident in the area just behind the depot. He is one of the leaders of the group Manileño Kontra Abuso which fought for the removal of the depot for being a health and environmental hazard.

In 2006, Cabigao took the issue to The Hague in The Netherlands and filed a complaint pressuring Shell Petroleum Corp., one of the oil companies using the depot, to leave the area.

Also on Wednesday, a group of Pandacan residents reiterated calls for the oil companies to keep their earlier “promises” to dismantle their respective facilities in the depot.

Antonio Santos, president of the Pandacan-based Advocates for Environmental and Social Justice (AESJ), recalled that Shell, Petron Corp. and Chevron Philippines had given their commitment that they would follow what the law says about the depot.

“They promised that they will relocate away from Pandacan but their huge tanks have not yet been dismantled,” Santos told the Inquirer. “Chevron has not been using its facility since May, while Petron’s tanks are now empty. But why are the tanks still there? Why not start dismantling them?”

3 weeks to dismantle a tank

“The contractors explained that dismantling one tank alone can take about three weeks. So if Chevron, for example, has stopped operating since May, there is no reason why it shouldn’t start dismantling its tanks, unless it has a hidden agenda,” he said.

“Every time we meet, the oil companies do not want to set a timetable for moving out of Pandacan. We have submitted a proposed timetable, which would see the firms winding down operations from August to October this year, and followed by the dismantling of the tanks from November to January next year. But they protest that, saying they can’t do it,” Santos said.

Santos said this hardline stance should change with the Supreme Court decision, which called on the oil companies to submit a comprehensive relocation plan and have it implemented within six months.

“We will be monitoring them to make sure all parties will do their part of the deal,” Santos said.

Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada on Wednesday noted that “relocating (the tanks) within six months is doable.”

“We can extend the period for them to comply if they show strong evidence of (compliance),” Estrada said. “But we can also think of sanctions for them if they fail to act.”

On Tuesday, Supreme Court spokesperson Theodore Te announced that the high court, voting 10-2, upheld an ordinance calling for the depot’s removal and enacted during the term of then mayor Lito Atienza in 2001.

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