The country’s three major oil companies have long-opened their Pandacan oil depots for third party risk assessment, but the reluctance of opposing parties to join the process has been putting the proposed activity on cliffhanger.

Pilipinas Shell country chairman Edgar Chua told media that they have asked all stakeholders to be involved, but “they refuse to join us” so the timeframe in accomplishing that task is being pushed back.

The industry initially planned of constituting a 15-man multiparty panel to undertake re-assessment of the Pandacan depot operations, a process hoped to clear up concerns relating to environmental impact of the oil facilities, chiefly in their host community and the adjacent Pasig River.

Aside from the local government of Manila and the church, the other invited parties include the Bureau of Fire Protection; Department of Environment and Natural Resources; representatives from the National Engineering Center of the University of the Philippines (NEC-UP); and the Asian Institute of Management; and the Department of Energy, among others. Those from the opposing parties are supposed to be spearheaded by the Social Justice Society of lawyer Vladimir Cabigao.

The oil firm executive enthused that he was puzzled by their “unwillingness” to join the third party assessment since that could have been the only venue to clarify all the issues and concerns being raised against the oil facilities in Pandacan.

Chua noted that they have asked all parties voicing opposition to the depots’ continued operations at Pandacan, including those from the City Council of Manila and even representatives from the Church, to be part of the assessment process but they all thumbed down the invitation.

He stressed that without the participation of these opposing groups, the oil firms cannot move ahead with the process, otherwise, they will be accused of pursuing it as a “self-serving exercise.”

The Shell official further indicated that if the people in Pandacan are to be asked directly, they do not have problems about the oil depots staying at the current site. Nevertheless, he stressed that some parties are using the issue for political expediency.

The proposal then would be to assess the Pandacan depot operations two-pronged: first layer will be undertaken by the locally-constituted panel; and the second step will involve an international third party independent risk assessor of renowned competence and integrity.

The oil firms repeatedly explained that operating the depots at Pandacan could not have been considered “pollutive” since there are no processes involved in these facilities -- they are just merely storing the products distributed to Metro Manila and adjacent provinces.

Oppositors claimed though that the oil facilities have been causing pollution to the Pasig River, but even this was already debunked by groups involved in cleaning up the waste-stricken waterways.

Despite the downscaling as well as the series of evaluation and risk assessments already made on the Pandacan depots, the oil companies are keen at subjecting themselves to another round if only to  put things in order and to throw light on what were claimed as ‘unfounded allegations.’

The oil firms said they are willing “to shoulder the expenses for an assessment by an independent party of the safety and pollution control aspects of their Pandacan operations”. They qualified though that the risk assessor must be one of the top 10 in the world “in order to ensure its competence and credibility.”