Diesel seeps into water pipes in Bataan village

DINALUPIHAN, Bataan—Residents in Barangay San Pablo here started buying bottled water after diesel, which has been leaking from a busted fuel pipeline since Sunday, contaminated their water sources.

Reynaldo Diwa, 46, a San Pablo resident, said families in Purok 1 were forced to buy bottled water since the pipeline carrying diesel from the Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales to the Clark Freeport in Pampanga burst when it was hit during a drilling operation by a contractor of a telecommunications firm.

The leaking fuel reached the village’s water sources, with residents reporting that water coming from at least nine water pumps were contaminated.

The leak also reached a river where residents, carrying pails and other containers, tried to salvage fuel from the river water.

Roberto de Padua, San Pablo village chief, told Mayor Joel Jaime Payumo that the crew of Comtel Industrial Services Inc., while working in the village on Nov. 25, hit a pipeline of the Philippine Coastal Storage and Pipeline Corp. that transports diesel fuel from Subic to Clark.

De Padua said the Comtel management applied for a barangay permit to operate but did not seek a separate permit to do drilling. He said the village is preparing a complaint against Comtel for the damage on the village’s water sources. Greg Refraccion, Inquirer Central Luzon