FPIC to CA: Pipe still safe to use

Almost two years after its 117-kilometer-long pipeline was discovered to be the source of the oil that had been leaking into the basement of the 22-story West Tower condominium in Makati City since July 2010, the Lopez-owned First Philippine Industrial Corp. (FPIC) on Wednesday reiterated that the decades-old structure was still safe to use.

Einstein Chiu, FPIC head engineer, said that oil pipelines were generally operable over an indefinite period of time with proper maintenance and regular checkups.

In a hearing on the petition for a “writ of kalikasan” filed by West Tower residents in the Court of Appeals,  Chiu stressed that FPIC’s white oil pipeline remained fit for use.

He said even the US Code of Federal Regulation did not specify any “acceptable age” for underground oil pipelines, adding that the FPIC had introduced “necessary safeguards” to ensure the pipe’s “structural integrity.”

In their petition for a writ of kalikasan which they filed in November 2010 in the Supreme Court, West Tower residents said that the oil leak in Barangay Bangkal had placed their lives in danger.

The petition was granted that same month and the high tribunal ordered the indefinite closure of the pipeline before it remanded the case to the appellate court.

Before the shutdown, the pipeline was used to transport fuel products from Batangas to the Pandacan oil depot in Manila.