The personnel tapped by the West Tower Condominium in Barangay Bangkal, Makati City to pump out the water supposedly contaminated with petroleum-based products were given an ultimatum to finish their operations Thursday.

The Makati City government issued the deadline, hinting a possible cancellation of the occupancy permit of the condominium should they fail to comply with the deadline.

The management of the condominium, however, said that it would be hard to comply with the deadline because of the nature of the mixture of the water at the basement of the building.

With the new development in the incident, residents of the condominium face the possibility of not being able to return to their respective units, once the city government of Makati cancels the permit of the building.

It can be recalled that a few weeks ago, residents of the condominium complained of a foul odor emanating from the basement of the building.

Bureau of Fire Protection (BFP) as well as representatives from the City Engineers Office of Makati inspected the area following an evacuation of all its occupants.

The building's basement has since been cordoned-off, as authorities conducted diggings along the pipelines which were first thought to have been the cause of the gas leak.

It was learned that the pipeline runs from Batangas to the Pandacan oil depot. The temporary closure of the pipeline initially caused a shortage of oil products in some areas in Metro Manila.

However, the operations of the pipeline eventually resumed to normal, after authorities decided to look to other possibilities for the cause of the gas leak. Since then, investigators handling the case have still not been able to determine the real cause of the gas leak.

BFP National Capital Region (NCR) Chief, Chief Supt. Pablito Cordeta who earlier went to the site to investigate, said that at least 25 percent of the water at the basement had a mixture of possibly kerosene or gasoline.