Firm affected by West Tower closure seeks compensation

MANILA, Philippines—A business establishment affected by the shutdown of West Tower condominium in Barangay Bangkal, Makati City, due to an oil leak has asked for compensation for the losses it has incurred.

In a letter to Mayor Jejomar Erwin Binay, Filtra Group said that although First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) had admitted that the leak came from its commercial oil pipeline, the Lopez-owned firm has not been ordered by anybody to compensate or help the affected tenants, owners and businesses.

Filtra Group is engaged in the wood business and outsourcing services.

“We do not know if we will ever be able to get anything back from our losses,” Filtra president and chief operations officer Per Stangegaard said in his letter. He added that his company’s sales had suffered tremendously because of the situation.

“We had hoped that the FPIC, beyond offering apologies, would extend a helping hand or for authorities to start a negotiation about how they could help us out,” he added as he appealed to the city government “to intervene and afford us some measure of justice.”

Filtra Group was one of the business establishments which were forced out of the condominium last year after authorities shut down the building due to the risk of a possible explosion as a result of the oil leak.

Stangegaard lamented that aside from being displaced, they were totally left in the dark and have not been receiving information or assistance either from the authorities, West Tower or FPIC.

“We are at a total and complete loss with regard to what has been happening at West Tower. We’ve not been informed whether we may be able to return at all to our offices or whether that hope has become unrealistic,” he said.

In response, the city government said that while it has been doing its share of the responsibility, it has to abide with the recommendations and final decisions of other government agencies, such as the Departments of Energy, Health and Environment and Natural Resources which are directly involved in the disposition of the case.

City building official Nelson Morales also told Stangegaard in a letter that the condominium building cannot be subjected to even the slightest rehabilitation because there are still millions of fuel beneath the ground.

“The continuous fuel pouring inside the building causes fume buildup, thus making it uninhabitable, for being health hazardous and unsafe,” he said. “We have been pressuring FPIC and their environmental cleanup agent, CH2MHill, to hasten all remedial measures on West Tower premises [but] we find their work quite slow.”