(A reprint from Howling Head’s blog. Howling Head is a literary traveller who works as a nurse in Kent in United Kingdom who uses his day job and the gloomy country ambiance as inspiration for his literary outbursts).
I feel sad today. As you can see, this is my “sad blog” and I am a sucker for sad news. It has been more than a month since an oil tanker chartered by Petron sank off Guimaras Strait that bit of sea between Panay and Guimaras island just like that bit of Atlantic ocean that forms a channel between France and Britain. What makes this even sadder is the fact that as you read this, bunker fuel continues to leak from the sunken ship at the rate of 120 litres per day. Since that sad stormy afternoon of the 11th of August it has already ravaged more than 300 kilometres of coastline and displaced thousands of people that are continuously growing in numbers as the oil spills reach other island shores.
Guimaras Island is one of more than 7,000 islands that make up the Philippines. It is an idyllic spot for cheap island trips during my heydays as a poor nursing student before I could afford Boracay. Boracay is the Philippines world renowned beach where a cup of tea is as expensive as a cuppa in London and I have to say, nearly as good.
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Check the pics from the production shoot of the indie filmmakers involved in the ABC 5 short film project for Guimaras. This is in cooperation with the Independent Filmmakers Cooperative of the Philippines headed by Chits Jimenez. Just click on the picture above and it will bring you to Victor Villanueva’s multiply account. Read the Inquirer article here.
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Wanna help but don’t know how? Have altruistic? tendencies but don’t have any dime to give away? Well Market Manila, the global pinoy adviser on everything sumptuous and other gastronomic delights has the answer for you. For every thought or comment you leave in his blog, he’ll match it up with “budbud kabog (at cost).”
Just keep talking and Market Man will do the rest of the cooking. He’ll send the funds over to UNICEF which will fund drinking water purifying tablets to ensure safe drinking water for 600 people for 100 days. But the comments have to reach 500! (strictly one post per household….oopps I think Ive posted twice). And his special request? You have to concoct a food item that you would like to be featured for the Christmas season.
Check out http://www.marketmanila.com for more details.
Save our Lives, SOS! Panay and Guimaras launched itsGuimaras Chapter last September 22 at the Municipal Hall of Nueva Valencia, Guimaras. It was attended overwhelmingly by the provincial, municipal and barangay officials, priests, representatives of the affected local communities, barangay health workers and concerned individuals of the province of Guimaras.
Provincial Administrator Elmer Ganancial delivered a very empowering message challenging the people of Guimaras to be united and vigilant in asserting and pressuring Petron Corporation to be held accountable for the tragedy. The active and vigilant involvement of the people of Guimaras will push Petron Corporation to answer its liability, he said.
Testimonies of the representatives from the affected communities revealed that the oil spill tragedy was a nightmare and continues to bring horrifying effects to their lives. Loss of livelihood and how to recover from such economic devastation was the utmost concern of the communities. They also expressed that Petron’s
Cash for Work Program that pays P300 per day for the resident-workers involved in clean-up operation created division among the people in the communities.
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This is a reprint from the blog entry of IloiloCityBoy. IloiloCityBoy describes himself as a PR and a political consultant by profession but a writer in vocation. Read up and you’ll find out the new hocus-pocus in town. Keep your eyes open. Here is the entry.
“Two days ago, the Light Cargo Tanker (LCT) contracted by Petron Corporation and the Philippine Coast Guard to take out the collected oil sludge in Guimaras finally departed Cabalagnan Wharf in Nueva Valencia for Mindanao.
Carrying around 500 Metric Tons of bunker fuel sludge and assorted debris, the LCT will deliver the waste material to the Holcim Cement Plant located in Lugait, Misamis Oriental where it will be used as an alternative fuel and raw material for cement production. Another 2,000-ton capacity barge is currently at dock at Nueva Valencia, just waiting to be loaded to its full capacity.
The people of Guimaras can now heave a sigh of relief seeing that the highly toxic oil sludge are finally being taken out of their island province. People should also be thankful to Petron Corporation for voluntarily shouldering the cost of transporting and disposing the collected oil sludge. Or should they?? In a blog entry here dated September 7, I wrote that an Australian liquid waste treatment firm was offering to treat FOR FREE the collected oil sludge in Guimaras….
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It’s not just the air that is toxic, now? it’s also the drinking water. Panay News reported that there are “unacceptable levels of polyaromatic hydrocarbons detected in the water and soil.” (Read the entire article here.) No more livelihood, no more food to eat, no more air to breathe, no more water to drink!
It’s all starting to feel like the novels of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Magical realism ma ala One Hundred Years of Solitude touches down on Guimaras waters. First because its a tragedy of great magnitude that the international media has come to treat like a small dot of fiction or just flights of fancy. Almost 300 kilometers of coastline affected and 26,000 people displaced and we don’t even land in the front pages of CNN and BBC What kind of mega-super kingdom kaya is behind this news blackout
In “One Hundred Years of Solitude,” the disintegration of the little town of Macondo started at the discovery of ice, a symbol of savagery of imperialism. In our little island of Guimaras, its the oil, which has come to represent man’s hunger for power and greed.
In Macondo, there are characters whose farts were so strong they can kill all the flowers, but in Guimaras, farts come in the form of rotten eggs which dont just kill the flowers, it kills everything else.
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Today, Sept. 25, 2006, Atty. Teodosio along with several Visayan Sea Squadron members, went to Guimaras and met up with Gov. Nava to deliver the donation goods (cash donations converted to gloves and masks) given by the SHOPWISE group and other individual donors like Stephen Matti, Veronica Illenberger and Jennifer Alfon-Adano
Let’s continue to? take action and make a difference!
-Submitted by Honeylette Teodosio, volunteer for VSSQ
Letter from Benjie Madoline of Accenture:? ? We are now on the last phase of our initiative to help the Guimaras victims. Company wide, the Accenture Guimaras Fund Drive will end this Friday, September 29, 2006. As of last Friday, we are able to collect PhP 79,385.25 worth of monetary pledges (see table below).
Most of this will be through salary deductions. This means that the Company will be able to release the Check mid next month. We will be depositing this to the Batas Kalikasan account. We will then provide a copy of the transaction receipt to you(VSS) and to Batas Kalikasan.
As for all donations in kind, I have yet to receive an updated statistics from all building point persons. I will try give you the update on Wednesday. So far though,? its safe to say that we have at least 20 donation-filled boxes.
Mid this week, we? plan to send? another postcard to the community. This should serve as the last reminder to everyone regarding the initiative.
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