Manileños may have been deceived by officials in saying that there are only two alternatives to end the issue of the controversial oil depots in the city’s Pandacan district, according to Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Secretary Avelino “Sonny” Razon Jr.

Razon, a former National Capital Region Police Office chief, told editors of the Manila Bulletin during a lunch meeting that city officials may have done residents of the city a disservice by only presenting two possible solutions to the problem: kick out the Big 3 oil companies out of Pandacan or leave them as they are.

Razon, who has announced his intention to contest Manila’s mayoral post in 2010, said a relocation of the oil depots within the city could be the best solution to the controversy.

It can be recalled that early this year, former Manila Mayor and current Environment Secretary Lito Atienza called for the immediate implementation of Ordinance No. 8027 signed in 2001, which initially gave the oil firms six months to relocate their facilities from Pandacan in order to protect the residents from possible dangers due to the proximity of the depot.

The ordinance has been brought to court and decided on by the Supreme Court in 2007, ruling against the Big Three.

However, the idea of a relocation has been shot down by the current city council and Mayor Alfredo Lim, who signed Ordinance No. 7177 allowing the three firms to stay put in consideration of the economic impact to the city that the move would entail.

Razon said that he has consulted with Manila residents living close to the facility before he came up with his stand on the issue.

"My stand on the issue of the oil depot is that in due time, they must be moved from Pandacan, because there is a different situation now than when they started operating there decades ago. Whereas before it was considered safe because there were only several residents living near it, the population has since increased and (people) are now literally surrounding the area,” he said.

“We will relocate the depot somewhere in Road 10 near the Harbor Center, near Smokey Mountain, so that their relocation will not be outside of the city. The skilled workers that are employed at the depots will still be able to continue working for the oil firms, only they will have to travel a short distance or commute to get to their place of work,” he said.

Razon said that he understands fear of Manileños of the possible economic impacts of the depot moving outside the city, but with his solution, the real estate taxes that the firms pay to the city will be retained since the relocation site is still within city limits.

“It is not true that once these depots leave, Manila will lose taxes to fund basic services for the city. It is not true that thousands of skilled workers will lose their jobs if these facilities are move.

“One: if we move them to Harbor Center, they will still be in Manila so that taxes will stay, and besides, the bulk of the taxes that these firms pay are actually not paid in Manila but in Makati where their corporate headquarters are situated,” he said.

“Two: on the issue of skilled workers losing their jobs, that is also not true because if the firms move, the workers will still retain their jobs. It does not necessarily mean that if the firms move to Tondo, the people in Tondo will take over their jobs because they are still the ones who have the skills,” he explained.