144
Thirty percent of the water pollution load comes form
industrial sources.
An assortment of chemical factories,
paper
mills,
tanneries,
alcohol
distilleries,
food
manufacturing plants and others comprising 69 percent of
the country’s 15,000 industrial firms are located in Metro
Manila. Majority of them discharge either untreated or
partially treated wastewater into the different river
systems of the metropolis. As a result, five major river
systems - Pasig, Tullahan - Tenejeros, San Juan and
Parañaque - Zapote rivers have become biologically dead.
Practically all rivers in other highly urbanized areas such
as Cebu, Iloilo, Davao and Baguio are similarly polluted
(EMB, DENR Brochure).
Major Types and Effects of Water Pollutants
The types, sources and effects of water pollutants are
often interrelated. Therefore, it is convenient to divide
them into major categories (Table 2) (Cunningham and Saigo,
1996).
Land Pollution
Land pollution takes place when harmful substances are
introduced to the soil so that the soil is unable to
sustain life as it normally should (EMB, DENR).
Land pollution, excessive amounts of insecticides,
fungicides,
herbicides,
fertilizers
and
other
toxic
chemicals introduced to the soil cause pollution.
Soil
erosion and floods resulting from denudation of our
forests, also contribute to land pollution. Other causes of
land pollution are atomic fallout and mine tailings which
poison agricultural lands during floods.
Over - fertilizers can destroy the soil’s ability to
self-generate. When too much fertilizer is used, the
nitrogen - fixing bacteria and other organisms in the soil
no longer function as they should because the nutrients
they
are
supposed
to
produce
are
already
there.
Consequently, more and more fertilizer have to be used.
Besides, blinders used in fertilizers are not biodegradable
and they cause the soil to harden.
145
DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloro-ethane) is a powerful
insecticide. When sprayed on plants, it can poison the land
and living creatures including people. DDT retains its
potency in the environment for years. Plants and organisms
to some extent, absorb DDT. As the food chain progresses,
it becomes the ultimate repository of considerable amounts
of DDT. In many western and industrialized countries, the
use of DDT is now banned in view of its harmful genetic
effect on many life forms.
Seagulls, eagles, fish-eating
ospreys in the US and Europe are near extinction because of
it.
DDT is absorbed by plants and insects which are eaten
by fish. The fish in turn passes DDT on to the birds which
feeds on them.
Birds also eat insects poisoned with DDT
rendering. DDT renders them infertile. Those still able to
breed lay thin-shelled eggs that are easily crushed. These
hasten the extinction of the birds affected.
Chemical pesticides, by adding just one component, can
upset the delicate balance of nature. Nature immediately
tries to restore the balance - but it often over-reacts.
Farmers would wipe out just one pest with specific chemical
pesticide.
Soon they find their crops afflicted with six
or so other pests resistant to the chemicals. As the food
chain shows, pesticides eventually kill insect-eating birds
that normally control these six or so kinds of pests. Now
they are free to destroy the farmer’s crops.
Other sources of land pollution
Garbage dumps and scattered trash do not only stink.
They also provide breeding places for flies, rats, insects
and other carriers of diseases like cholera, eltor, typhoid
fever, gastro enteritis, dysentery and diarrhea.
Noise Pollution
Noise pollution is the presence of sound so loud or so
sudden or so unpleasant that it becomes an assault to the
body, particularly the sense of hearing, causing mental or
physical harm (EMB, DENR).
Noise is considered most dangerous when it is loud,
meaningless, irregular and unpredictable, like the ear-
146
splitting roar of a motorcycle or the grating sound of a
chain saw.
Sound, and therefore noise, is measured in terms of
decibels. The faintest audible sound to the human ear is
one decibel. From there on, every detectable increase in
loudness is expressed as an additional decibel.
The
average human ear can tolerate noise of 50 decibels noise
that becomes dangerous to health.
When it is prolonged, noise of 90 decibels or more can
damage the hearing of humans. Persistent noise can also
directly or indirectly impair the mind or the body.
Types of noise which are harmful are the staccato
sound of a pneumatic jackhammer which produces about 110
decibels,
the roar of a motorcycle which is about 100
decibels, the blast of rock and roll music that can set the
scale into the 120 decibel range, and the piercing scream
of a jetliner at close range which may give off 150
decibels that are very harmful.
Others are the screaming circular saws in lumber
yards,
grating sounds of factory machine, rumbling of
motor vehicles, pile driving in building construction,
squealing tires, screeching brakes, blaring television
sets, riveting guns,
transistor radios, and even loud
shouting.
A shotgun blast at 140 decibels can already produce
some pain. Noise of 150 decibels can rupture ear drums. In
experiments, mice have died after exposure to noise of 175
decibels.
The following types of noise may be
dangerous beyond 4 hours of continuous exposure:
Noise
Heavy city traffic
Heavy vehicle
Air compressor
Hammermill
Home lawn mower
Multiple spot welder
Banging steel plate
Decibels
92
92
94
96
98
98
104
considered
147
Magnetic drill press
Vacuum pump
Jetliner, 500 feet above
Jolt squeeze hammer
106
108
115
122
The intensity of the noise produced by the jolt
squeeze hammer is beyond the human pain threshold of 120
decibels.
A. Effects on Human Health
Enough evidence human shown that noise can raise blood
pressure, increase blood cholesterol levels, affect blood
vessels and hormone production, interfere with sleep, cause
ulcers, trigger heart attacks, and even harm unborn babies
(EMB, DENR).
Whenever we are exposed to excessive noise, our blood
vessels constrict, the skin pales, the pupils dilate, the
eyes close while the voluntary and involuntary muscles
tense. Excessive noise causes deafness.
Medical research has established that noise with an
intensity above 90 decibels affect the functions of the
heart. Researchers at the Institute of Max Planck in
Germany measured by means of electronic devices the
pressure changes in the capillaries of the fingers, which
occur when a person is subjected to sudden noises of 90-100
decibels. From the findings of these scientists, it was
deduced that many heart attacks could be attributed to very
loud noises. The fact is that the body’s automatic nervous
system begins to react to 70 decibels, the sound produced
by road traffic. At this level, narrowing of the arteries
is noted. This raises the diastolic blood pressure and
lessens the supply of blood to the heart. Another important
finding showed that noise over 90 decibels rapidly damages
the cells of the acoustic nerve.
Noise is harder on the nervous system than on the
ears.
It can cause jitters, shaking, increase of pulse
and respiration rates. All these interfere with social
communication and learning.
Very loud noise can cause mental derangement and even
death in certain cases. In experiments, animals were killed
outright when exposed to 150 to 160 decibels. A man shot at
148
passing motorcyclists when he was suddenly awakened from
his sound sleep by the roar of their engines.
They are the workers in shipyards, foundries, boiler
factories and other noisy industrial plants. But we are all
subject to noise pollution.
In homes, the combined sounds of vacuum cleaner,
electric dishwasher and ventilating fan, plus perhaps a
nearby lawn mower, can rival the assault on the ear in
factories. In many offices, conversation in normal tones
had become impossible. Typewriters and other machines
clatter, and air conditioning systems hum steadily.
In the streets, we are exposed to noise emitted by
motor vehicles and stero-phono playing equipment in
jeepneys and buses which are turned on too loud. In the
countryside,
inhabitants are shaken by the rattle of
motorized farm implements, and the rumble of motor vehicles
on the roads.
People who are continually exposed to heavy city
traffic, which causes noise of 92 decibels, also run the
risk of permanent ear damage. Most vulnerable are traffic
policemen, bus and jeepney drivers and those who ply their
trade that exposes them to this type of noise (EMB, DENR).
B. Effect on Industries
Noise creates a two-fold problem for industry. It
affects workers health and sabotages industry. Noise can
cause anxiety, irritability and fatigue among workers,
particularly the more susceptible ones. These cause lower
output, lower efficiency and morale and even accidents
(EMB, DENR).
Some experts claim that the losses caused by hearing
impairment among workers are greater than those caused by
any other occupational illness.
The best way of dealing with any hazard is by
suppressing it at the source, either by substitution or
engineering. A noisy machine may be substituted with a more
silent one. Welding can replace riveting; metal can be
cleaned chemically rather than by high-speed polishing.
Some metal parts may be replaced by rubber or plastic. A
149
well-maintained machine makes less noise than one which is
in need of lubrication or has worn parts that need to be
changed (EMB, DENR).
Ways to Control Pollution
a.
Private citizens can help in two ways:
(1) exercise discipline and obey existing laws and
ordinances against littering,
squatting and burning
of refuses; and
(2) participate
in
civic
vigilance
by
reporting
pollution cases to the proper authorities from
barangay to national levels.
b. Socio-Civic organizations
can:
(1) participate
or
lead
in
anti-pollution
information/education drives.
(2) supply needed qualified manpower for deputation in
anti-pollution enforcement campaigns launched by NPCC
and other involved agencies of government.
(3) donate to destitute deserving areas of habitation,
in cash or in kind facilities that are needed for
general sanitation and environmental protection but
are beyond the reach of the poor.
c. Motorists should:
(1) properly maintain their engines to avoid poor
combustion performance.
(2) drive correctly to avoid smoke-belching, as (a) accelerating rapidly from a stop.
(b) gunning the engine while waiting for traffic
light to change.
(3) tune engines regularly
(4) avoid driving personal vehicles if public rides are
available for ordinary commuting.
d. Industries should:
(1) properly maintain equipment and machines that
pollution sources.
(2) modify
and
upgrade
industrial
operations
processes that abet pollution.
(3) install pollution control facilities.
are
and
150
(4) donate to poor communities or to government agencies
cash or items needed in environmental protection.
e. People in agriculture should:
(1) resort more to organic than chemical fertilizers.
(2) use more of biological and organic pest control than
chemical pesticides.
(3) plant more pest resistant crops.
It is everyone’s concern to protect
resources and conserve our environment.
our
natural
151
CASE
STUDY 1
Copper Smelter Under Fire
By Sol Juvida
First published by the
Philippine Daily Inquirer, Ang Pahayagang Malaya,
The Manila Times and the Times Journal, March 1819, 1991.
ISABEL, LEYTE - SINCE 1990, RESIDENTS of this
coastal town have been puzzled by a spate of
mysterious deaths, a rise in cases of respiratory
diseases and the sudden scarcity of fish. Many
townsfolk attribute the deaths to bangungot (death
in sleep). But Isabel Mayor Priscillo Martin says,
“There is this strong suspicion that the deaths
were caused by pollution.”
Under fire for allegedly polluting Isabel and
its environs is the Leyte Industrial Development
Estate (LIDE).
A Marcos legacy, LIDE house three
industries that have been the subject of inquiry
from
seven
environmental
organizations,
the
Department of Environment and Natural Resources
(DENR), Congress and the smelting industry.
The
Philippines
associated
Smelting
and
Refining Corp.
(PASAR), the centerpiece of the
Leyte estate, is one of the major copper smelters
in the Asia-Pacific region. The government controls
41.9 percent of PASAR. The rest of the firms equity
is divided among private corporations and three
major Japanese trading houses. PASAR produces
copper cathodes, gold and silver. It supplies its
by-products to the two other firms on the estate:
the
government-controlled
Philippine
Phospate
152
Fertilizer Corp. (PHILPHOS) and the privately owned
Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co.
Since the estate opened in 1984, it has
transformed Isabel from a sleepy town to a booming
industrial community.
But only a few years after
the factories opened, townsfolk began complaining
of the bad smell and black smoke emitted by the
plants.
Dirty Business
Copper smelting is one of the dirtiest industries;
its operations release dusts, gases, fumes, and
heavy metals.
PASAR it has spent approximately 27
percent of the total plant costs-or some P1.8
billion - for anti-pollution facilities. But tests
conducted by the DENR on January 30,
1990 showed
mercury effluents at more than twice the standard
level of five parts per billion (ppb); another test
on February 27, 1990 showed the mercury level at
8.50 ppb.
Mercury is a toxic, metallic element that
causes the Minamata disease, an illness that
impairs the central nervous system, resulting in
loss of body coordination,
speech, hearing and
taste. Minamata victims also become blind and deaf.
Eventually, they die or else become what the
Japanese call “living wooden dolls”. The Minamata
disease, infact, was first discovered in a fishing
village on Minamata Bay in Japan. Some 220 tons of
mercury were discharge into the bay between 1949
and 1953. Twenty years passed before the disease
was identified as the illness suffered by at least
121 villagers.
153
Mercury vapors can enter the body through
inhalation.
The element can also be ingested
through contaminated food like fish and shellfish.
Unlike other elements, mercury cannot be diluted
and accumulates in the body.
“I have no doubt that mercury is a problem in
Isabel,” says Noel Duhaylungsod, head of the nongovernment
Center for Environmental Concerns
(CEC).
In an environmental conference held in Ormoc
City in March 1990, Prof. Masaharu Kawata, a
Japanese environmental scientist, revealed that his
research showed that Matlang Bay off Isabel, once a
rich fishing ground, had been poisoned with acid
and toxic metals such as copper, zinc, and cadium.
Said Kawata: “No living organisms, including fish
and shelfish, could possibly survive the acidity in
the bay.”
The soil around the industrial complexx was
also found contaminated with toxic metals such as
copper and zinc.
“Soil contamination has not yet
reached grave proportions,”
said Kawata, “but it
is clearly increasing.” Toxic metals limit the
soils ability to grow plants. According to Kawata,
the air is tainted with sulfur dioxide (0.04 ppm
concentration). Levels exceeding 0.02 ppm may cause
respiratory disorders such as asthma and chronic
bronchitis.
But Delfin Ganapin, DENR assistant secretary
and former head of the Environmental Management
Bureau (EMB), says Kawata’s findings do not yet
form a strong case against LIDE. Noting that the
Japanese scientist took his samples from the bay,
Ganapin explains, “You have to get liquid samples
from the pipes leading out from the firm (going
into the bay).”
154
Residents Picket Smelter
The Ormoc conference, however, was able to forge a
multipartite monitoring group to survey Isabel’s
environment. Banding together were the SOS Earth
(an environmentalist organization in Ormoc City),
the Isabel government, the DENR, and the LIDE.
Even before the group could start its first
monitoring activity, though, residents of Macario
in Merida,
an adjacent town of Isabel,
picketed
the Lepanto Mining Co. on August 22, 1990,
demanding
compensation
for
material
and
psychological damages wrought by the flue dust
spewed by the plant and washed down after heavy
rains to Matlang Bay. Macario barangay captain
Olimpio Anonat said he saw fish, sea cucumbers and
crabs floating in the bay after the rains.
The
hot dust burned grass and corn stalks and killed
chickens. After a public hearing, the DENR ordered
the temporary
closure of Lepanto’s flue dust
storage area.
Chemistry professor Dr. Fabian Dayrit of the
Ateneo de Manila University and the Volunteers in
Scientific Technical Assistance (VISTA) reported
that in a test of its toxicity to fish, flue dust
in concentrated form can kill the fish in one to
five hours.
The following month, September 1990,
Leyte
Rep. Carmel Locsin decried Isabel’s pollution
problems in a privilege speech in Congress.
The
House then sent a fact-finding team here, composed
of five representatives from the House committee on
natural resources and the committee on labor. The
team’s report scored the “careless storage by
Lepanto Mining of its toxic by - products and
wastes (arsenic trioxide and flue dust).”
155
The report concluded that “the mining company
in LIDE has not been very serious in following the
country’s anti - pollution laws and that the DENR
had been very lax in enforcing environmental laws
in the area.” The team recommended that the flue
dust that had gathered in Macario village and the
arsenic
stored
in
the
compound
of
Philmag,
Lepanto’s sister company, be immediately removed to
a safer place.
According to Dr. Isabel Mejia, a U.S. - trained
internist who works in Ormoc City, a Philmag worker
she examined in January 1991 had deep ulcerations
on both arms.
The patient also told Mejia that
nine other employees got similar ulcerations when a
drum of arsenic trioxide in the plant leaked and
the powder was blown by the wind. Arsenic trioxide,
a poisonous powder and the most common by-product
of copper smelting, may be absorbed through skin
contact.
Repeated
exposure
can
cause
skin
eruptions.
Lepanto plant manager Demosthenes Miralles
admits that the company produces five to eight tons
of flue dust a day and that its stockpile area is
already full. He says they had been vainly looking
for another site for the past four years.
Mountains of Dangerous Dust
Millions of tons of such hazardous wastes are
dumped in and around the industrial complex. People
here refer to the dumps as the Black Mountain,
White Mountain, and Red Mountain because of their
color.
The White Mountain is composed of gypsum or
hydrated calcium sulfate used in making plaster of
Paris. The plants spew five to six million tons of
156
gypsum dually.
Calcine or iron oxide accumulates
at a rate of 1.5 million tons daily and is known as
the Red Mountain. The iron component of calcine can
be recycled into iron. Meanwhile, granulated slugs
that make up the Black Mountain are stockpiled at
120,000 metric tons annually. These are used either
for sandblasting or ship repair.
LIDE officials insist that it is just a matter
of time before the estate’s harmful “mountains”
could
be
disposed
of
and
sold.
But
environmentalists fear that the longer these byproducts remain exposed, the more Isabel will be
polluted.
A monitoring group organized to collect and
analyze air emissions from the LIDE plants here
gathered three samples of influents (water coming
in) and effluents (water coming out) of two LIDE
companies in November 1990.
One sample tested
positive for mercury.
Tests done on December 26, 1990 also showed two
water samples that were positive for mercury. One
showed a staggering 29.9 ppb mercury for a company
codenamed Station 007 while the other registered
18.5 ppb for Station 009.
The source said their
office is not aware of the companies behind the
codenames. The monitoring group has yet to come up
with its own report.
When informed of the mercury findings, then
DENR Secretary Fulgencio Factoran said, “DENR
Region VIII should look for the source of the
mercury no matter how it is done, and stop it at
the source.” Ganapin said no special treatment
would be accorded to LIDE, as “government firms
must be the model.” PASAR and PHILPOS are partly
owned by the government.
157
A copy of DENR’s report on the “physical and
chemical analysis of LIDE” during the first quarter
of 1990 obtained by the CEC showed that the DENR
conducted routine sampling and inspection during
visits in January and February. Romy Acosta,
officer-in-charge and regional technical director
for DENR Region VIII, says LIDE is insisting that
the standard level for mercury is 50 ppb for
industrial water.
But in October 1990, the DENR
ruled the standard level to be five ppb.
Counting Samplings
Duhaylungsod says the DENR should conduct a test on
the sea floor. “They won’t miss heavy metals in
sediments,” he says. But Prof. Elma Torres of the
University of the Philippines’
College of Public
Health expresses some reservations over the mercury
findings. “one sampling is not conclusive,” she
says. “There could be an error in the laboratory
analysis or in the coding. They should have more
samples to eliminate errors. They should have split
sampling (two laboratories doing the same analysis
on the same sample).”
“Once we eat fish contaminated with mercury,”
says Torres, “the effects will really depend on how
much you have eaten. Each one of us has different
reactions to it.” The effects “could take years or
just a day,” she says, adding that if ingested,
only 10 percent of mercury is absorbed by the body,
while the rest is excreted.
Mario Albarece, vice president for human
resources of PASAR, declares, “We don’t have
mercury here. We don’t dump any waste into the sea.
We have our own disposal system.”
and Lepanto
plant manager Demosthenes Miralles says, “if you
happen to visit the Isabel market, many kinds of
158
fish are
there.”
still
sold
there.
I
do
my
marketing
Tony Villa Rivera, Philphos officer-in-charge
in February 1990, has said he would be the first to
pull out his family if there is pollution in
Isabel. His family has been living in Isabel for
the past 10 years. They buy their fish in Isabel
market. Most of the executives in LIDE have brought
their families to live in Isabel.
But Filemon Olaguer, a 67-year-old fisherman in
Isabel,
says most of the fish sold at Isabel
market are caught in the waters of the Cebu
boundary. “We still catch some fish here in Isabel
but not much anymore, unlike before,” he says. “We
have assorted fish here today, not of the
commercial variety anymore.”
Some members of the monitoring group have
expressed apprehension over the mercury finding in
Isabel. They fear for the local fishermen whose
livelihood might be affected once news about the
poisons’s presence in the waters here spreads.
Businessman and SOS Earth-Ormoc City head Pepe
Alfaro and Isabel environmentalist Dr. Melecio
Tatoy both say they are not campaigning for the
closure of the plants. They say they only want the
plants to remedy the pollution problem and protect
the people from pollution.
“The closure of Industrial plants would mean
unemployment,” Factoran himself pointed out, “and
we still have to consider what the people really
feel. We have to weigh the consequences of an
outright closure versus allowing the company to
clean up its act.”
159
But Duhaylungsod asks: “Yes, we are
today. But how about the next generation?”
alive
From: Saving the Earth: The Philippine Experience
4th Edition 1997
CASE
STUDY 2
FOUL AIR FROM OIL FIRMS
By Howie G. Severino
First published by
Today, Ang Pahayagang Malaya,
Standard, February 19, 1996.
and
the
Manila
IT SIGNED THE HIGHLY PUBLICIZED “Clean Air Pact”
with President Fidel Ramos in 1993, but the oil
industry continues to sell diesel and fuel oil that
violate anti-pollution standards.
Indeed, not only did the industry fail to
reduce the harmful sulfur content in diesel and
fuel oil by the January 1, 1996 deadline, the
country’s three oil companies - already embroiled
in
a
controversy
over
alleged
over
alleged
160
overpricing - even said they needed new
increases to cover the costs of compliance.
price
“We’ve been using the same sulfur content level
for so long, so what’s a few months?
Thats all
were asking,” said Pilipinas Shell spokesman Ed
Mapa. “We are not objecting to the standards. The
only issue is the timetable.”
Since December 1995, Pilipinas Shell, Caltex,
and Petron have been asking the government to
postpone the deadline set by the Department of
Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in an
administrative order to implement the Clean Air
Pact.
But while environment officials refused to
grant an extension, they appeared powerless to
enforce their order.
The DENR does not have the
power to penalize the companies for non-compliance,
and the government can hardly afford to suspend a
mighty industry that pumps the nation’s lifeblood.
And so more than a month after the deadline,
the oil companies were still selling diesel with as
much as 0.8 percent sulfur content, and fuel oil,
used in power plants, ships and factories, with 3.5
percent. The new standards require a reduction of
sulfur
to
0.5
percent
and
three
percent,
respectively.
When burned, sulfur is converted into sulfur
dioxide, which causes acid rain and pulmonary
disease. In a 1991 World Health Organization-funded
study, the University of the Philippines College of
Public Health found that jeepney drivers and others
exposed constantly to motor vehicle emissions had a
much higher rate of chronic respiratory illnesses.
161
DENR Secretary Victor O. Ramos remarked that
the need to reduce sulfur was “very urgent,”
considering that most of the air pollution in urban
areas is due to vehicles, especially those that run
on diesel.
The oil firms, however, asked for a three-month
deferment on fuel oil. In late February 1996, they
promised to immediately implement the standards on
diesel fuel, but only after the Energy Regulatory
Board (ERB) decides on a new price increase to pay
for upgrading the product.
A week after giving their word, the companies
had yet to file a petition with the ERB. At the
very least, a new petition would entail several
more months, especially in the light of the
protests over the fuel price increases.
When asked what legal penalties the oil firms
were risking, Secretary Ramos said, “I believe
penalties are not that important to them. What is
important is their reputation, and whether they can
keep their word to the President.”
The Clean Air Pact resulted in more stringent
environmental standards and led to the availability
of unleaded gasoline a year after it was signed.
The Pact was followed by environmental regulations
that bound the companies to reduce the sulfur
content in their products by the first day of 1996.
The DENR had initially proposed a 1995 deadline,
but it was pushed back by one year.
A Compromise Offer
162
In a last-ditch appeal, the chief executive
officers of the oil firms met with Secretary Ramos
in February 1996 and offered a compromise: the
industry would start selling diesel fuel according
to the new standard and insisted on a three-month
extension for fuel oil.
The industry had originally indicated that it
needed to raise the price of diesel by P0.10 per
liter to finance the cost of lowering its sulfur
content.
In a telephone interview, the DENR secretary
said he gave the industry “no optimistic signals”
regarding its appeal, but told the oil officials he
would confer with Energy Secretary Manuel Viray,
whom Ramos described in the interview as “noncommittal.”
“(The oil companies request) is difficult to
consider,” said Ramos, “because this is something
they promised the President and our predecessors.
We have no moral authority to grant their request.”
Since 1993, the industry has not done enough to
prepare for compliance, according to officials of
the DENR, the agency in charge of implementing
anti-pollution regulations.
“It seems to show a lack of seriousness. The
industry had 33 months to prepare,” said a DENR
official involved in developing urban environmental
policies. “(The companies) may be waiting for the
industry to be deregulated by Congress before they
comply.”
Congress had been debating the bill that would
deregulate the oil industry, with House leaders at
one point vowing to pass the bill by March 1996.
163
But progress was stalled by allegations hurled by a
congressman of overpricing by the industry.
An oil company spokesman denied, however, that
the pending deregulation bill was related to the
industry’s
stance
on
the
new
clean
fuel
requirement. “Whether the industry is regulated or
not, if there is a standard, we will comply,” said
Pilipinas Shell’s Mapa.
But he did acknowledge that deregulation would
make it easier to comply. “In a regulated industry,
the selling price is regulated. There is no elbow
room
to
finance
additional
infrastructure
requirements,” he said.
More Price Increases?
The oil industry sought a deferment of the sulfur
reduction deadline by raising the specter of
multiple petitions for price increases.
In a December 13, 1995 letter addressed to the
DENR’s Ramos and co-signed by the chief executives
of the three oil firms, the industry appealed for
the deferment of the deadline because “ it will
mean a higher cost for producing these low sulfur
product grades which will aggravate our situation.”
Pilipinas Shell President Reinier Willems,
Caltex Chairman William S. Tiffany, and Petron
Chaiman Monico Jacob cited the need to petition the
ERB for higher prices to cover the costs of meeting
the new anti-pollution standards.
But they deemed it “inappropriate” while their
firms still had “long-pending petitions for price
adjustment.” The ERB finally permitted fuel prices
164
to rise by as much as P.50 per liter in February 2,
1996, which led to public demonstrations and
congressional inquiries.
In his January 11 reply to the oil firms
letter,
DENR
Secretary
Ramos
rejected
the
industry’s appeal, stating that it was given enough
time to prepare to meet the deadline.
He also
cited the “urgency with which the sulfur dioxide
and total suspended particulates problem must be
addressed
because
of
their
corrosive
and
carcinogenic effects.”
According to Secretary Ramos, he was made to
understand at his meeting with industry leaders on
February 12, 1996 that the companies were promising
to comply with the new diesel standard without
needing to ask for higher prices.
But one oil company official said that was not
their intent.
The industry would still be
petitioning the ERB for a new price increase to
cover its costs, he said.
It may not be necessary for oil companies to
raise their prices to comply with clean fuel
standards, according to Ricardo B. Ramos, an urban
environmental advocate and the author of a paper on
policy responses to air pollution.
He cited the
experience with unleaded gasoline.
“Unleaded gas is the same price as premium
leaded,”
Ramos
said.
“That
was
achieved
by
adjusting other petroleum products, a balancing act
to accommodate unleaded gasoline.
It is
subsidized by other oil products.”
The wide availability and use of unleaded
gasoline today has been one of the most promising
165
developments in the campaign to improve the urban
environment.
Before the Clean Air Pact, gasoline in the
Philippines was said to contain the highest lead
content in the world. But improvements in fuel
quality are being overtaken by the sheer volume of
vehicles, which now account for an estimated 90
percent of Metro Manila’s air pollution, said
Ricardo Ramos, as industry is rapidly relocating
outside the metropolis.
Lack of Leverage
The reduction of sulfur on January 1, 1996 was
supposed to be the first step in the gradual
lowering of sulfur content in locally used fuels.
Environment
officials
had
earlier
been
convinced by oil officials that the cost of sulfur
reduction could be passed on to consumers. “The
public will be willing to pay more in exchange for
cleaner air,” said a DENR official who had been
monitoring
compliance
with
anti-pollution
regulations.
Even if that were true, the willingness would
probably also depend on the timing. While the DENR
was trying to convince the oil firms to comply with
the anti-pollution measures, consumers were still
reeling from recent price hikes. For the ERB to
adjust the new fuel prices again - this time to pay
for the lower sulfur content - would have been
politically sensitive in the short term, to say the
least. There had already been widespread public
opposition to price increases just two weeks
earlier, along with calls in Congress to abolish
the ERB altogether.
166
But there was a consensus among government
regulators not to grant the industry any extensions
of the January 1 deadline. According to an internal
DENR memo, “(ERB) Chairman Tantiongco suggests that
government take the hard line on this.”
The question, though, was what kind of leverage
the government possessed to enforce that hard line.
Regulations are vague about sanctions that can be
imposed
on
the
oil
industry,
although
theoretically, government can prohibit it from
selling its products. But that option would likely
cripple mass transportation and much of the
economy.
It was also unclear which department is in
charge of imposing the penalties. DENR officials,
while in charge of monitoring, pointed to the
Bureau of Product Standards of the Department of
Trade and Industry (DTI) as the enforcing agency.
Contacted by telephone, DTI officials in turn
pointed to the Department of Energy.
Yet, Officials agreed that the vital nature of
its products makes the oil industry a powerful
force
for
regulators
to
reckon
with.
While
acknowledging that it would be difficult for
government to impose sanctions on the industry,
DENR Undersecretary Delfin Ganapin Jr. Stressed
that non-compliance with environmental standards
would make the oil companies “lose face,” and that
“consumer advocacy” cool compel the industry to
obey the law.
167
From: Saving The Earth: The Philippine Experience
4th Edition 1997
Activity 1:
Answer this activity before proceeding to the
next Lesson.
1.
Give the different types, sources, examples and control
of pollution (complete the table below):
Type
Source
Control
Measures
Examples
168
2.a. Go to a nearby urban area in your province. Observe
what type of pollution is present in your area. List the
possible sources of these pollutants.
Don’t forget to bring your data notebook when you report
to your instructor.
b. Diagram the site where pollution occurs.
c. Design ways to control and prevent the pollution present
in your study area.
d. Submit your data, results and discussion when you report
to class.
3.
Read and study Case Study 1 - “Copper Smelter Under
Fire” and Case Study 2 - “Foul Air from Oil Firms”.
Make reaction papers on these two case studies.
Submit
these when you report to class.