MANILA – The mayor of Manila signed on Thursday an ordinance which allowed the country’s three major oil companies to continue operating their depots in a crowded residential district in the city.
Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim said he signed the ordinance mainly due to the huge losses which City Hall would incur in terms of revenues as well as employment opportunities for thousands of workers.
Lim estimated that Manila generates annual revenues equivalent to $20 million from the continued operation of the oil depots of Petron Corporation, Pilipinas Shell and Chevron Philippines (formerly Caltex) which are located along the historic Pasig River in the district of Pandacan.
The mayor pointed out they could not afford to lose such huge earnings from the so-called “Big 3″ oil companies especially during these hard and difficult times arising from the worsening global financial and economic turmoil.
Such funds, Lim explained, would be used to help especially the poor residents to cope with the adverse impact of the global recession.
But those opposed said they would file charges against Lim before the office of the Ombudsman and question the legality of the ordinance before the Supreme Court.
The oppositors also accused Lim of sacrificing the welfare and safety of the people residing in Pandacan as well as the occupants of Malacanang Palace, the official residence of Philippine presidents, which is about a kilometer away from the petroleum depots.
They added that Manila residents are being held hostage by the oil companies through “economic blackmail.”
The ordinance reversed an earlier measure approved by the Manila city council which reclassified some parts of Pandacan and the neighboring district of Santa Ana from an industrial to a commercial zone.
With the reclassification, the measure effectively banned the continued operation of the Pandacan oil depots and whose legality was upheld by the High Court.
But in less than two weeks after the Supreme Court issued its ruling ordering with finality the relocation of the depots, the same council approved an ordinance which created zones for medium and heavy industries in the city.
The sponsors of the ordinance justified its passage as they pointed out that even the Supreme Court had acknowledged that its order could be superseded by another ordinance which would allow the three oil firms to retain their depots.
In a related development, Petron Corporation, the country’s biggest oil refiner and distributor, has agreed to scale down its depot operations following a meeting with Lim and Catholic Archbishop Gaudencio Cardinal Rosales of Manila.
Eric Recto, the president of Petron, said they are ready to discuss with Lim the schedule of their planned scale-down and eventual phase-out of their depot.
Recto explained the eventual phase-out will coincide with projections of growth in demand for Petron’s products outside Metro Manila and the corresponding need for the company to establish its facilities close to the emerging demand centers.
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