BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – Nearly a year after the oil spill that hit Estancia, Iloilo November last year, the House of Representatives’ energy committee will finally conduct a congressional investigation.
The inquiry on Oct. 9 will be held at the provincial capitol of Iloilo – that’s a month short of the first anniversary of the oil spill.
Oriental Mindoro’s Rep. Reynaldo Umali will lead the investigation. He is the chairman of the House energy committee.
A day before the public hearing, Umali and committee members will inspect the oil spill site, said Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr.
Ground zero of the oil spill was Barangay Botongon, Estancia. Power Barge 103 of the state-owned Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corp. (PSALM) ran aground and spilled at least 900,000 liters of bunker fuel when super typhoon “Yolanda” (international name: Haiyan) struck on Nov. 8, 2013.
The oil spill displaced 1,200 families in Barangay Botongon.
Defensor has been criticizing the slow response of PSALM and cleanup contractor, Kuan Yu Global Technologies, Inc. to the oil spill. He vowed to haul them to court.
Yesterday, Defensor said he will ask the House energy committee to subpoena PSALM, and specifically for the state corporation to bare the composition of its Bids and Awards Committee that chose Kuan Yu Global Technologies, Inc. for the oil spill cleanup.
Defensor believed there was something amiss during the bidding for the cleanup.
He had been requesting PSALM to furnish him with the names of the BAC officials and the copy of the minutes of the bidding but to no avail.
As he recalled it, PSALM awarded the contract to Kuan Yu without post-qualification.
He also noted that Kuan Yu won two hours after the first bidding failed.
“A contract as big as this went to a contractor with no (oil spill cleanup) experience and capability. It has no equipment or machineries. We can’t find its office and the people it sent here have no expertise,” said the governor in previous interview.
Defensor also learned that Kuan Yu’s authorized capital stock was only P1 million, its subscribed capital stock P250,000 and its paid-up capital P60,000.
Before Kuan Yu revised its articles of incorporation in 2012, the company was originally known as Maxx Ionized Alkaline Water Inc., a franchiser of purified water refilling stations.
It took two weeks for PSALM to act on the oil spill.
“This resulted in the rising level of (air) toxicity (in the area),” said Ilonggo senator Franklin Drilon.
Humanitarian Response, a specialized digital service of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, described the Estancia oil spill a “major” one and a “cross-cutting humanitarian issue” that also involved the environment.
Upon the Department of Health’s recommendation, Defensor ordered a forced evacuation of 1,200 families from Barangay Botongon./PN
