Manila yesterday lost its bid to keep the Pandacan oil depots after
the Supreme Court (SC) declared unconstitutional an ordinance that
allowed the terminals’ continued stay in the city.
“Wherefore, in light of all the foregoing, Ordinance No. 8187 is
hereby declared unconstitutional and invalid with respect to the
continuing stay of the Pandacan Oil Terminals,” the SC ruled in a
decision written by Justice Jose Portugal Perez.
Manila Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada, on the other hand, was ordered
by the High Tribunal to cease and desist from enforcing Ordinance No.
8187 – approved during the incumbency of former Mayor Alfredo S. Lim and
Vice Mayor Isko Moreno – that allowed the continued stay of the oil
terminals in Pandacan.
It further ordered Estrada to oversee the relocation and transfer of
the oil terminals out of the Pandacan area in coordination with
appropriate government agencies and the concerned parties.
Chevron Philippines, Inc., Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corporation, and
Petron Corporation, which use the Pandacan oil depot, were given 45
days to submit to the Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) a comprehensive
plan and relocation schedule that should be completed not later than six
months from the submission of the documents.
In 2007, the SC had affirmed the legality of Ordinance No. 8027 that
directed the transfer of the terminals of the three oil companies out of
Manila.
However, the City of Manila later passed Ordinance No. 8187 that
allowed the continued stay of the oil terminals. Ordinance 8187 revoked
Ordinance 8027.
The passage of Ordinance 8187 was challenged before the SC in
petitions filed by the Social Justice Society (SJS) and another group.
SC spokesman Theodore O. Te said the High Court “adopted its
reasoning in the earlier case (G.R. No. 156052) in sustaining Ordinance
No. 8027.”
“The SC cited that the continued stay of the oil depot placed the
residents of Manila in danger of being a terrorist target. In the
earlier case (G.R. No. 156052), the Court sustained the validity and
constitutionality of Ordinance No. 8027 as a valid exercise of police
power because it had: (1) a lawful subject – ‘to safeguard the rights to
life, liberty, security and safety of all the inhabitants of Manila’ –
and (2) a lawful method – ‘the enactment of Ordinance No. 8027
reclassifying the land use from industrial to commercial, which
effectively ends the continued stay of the oil depots in Pandacan.
“The Court, in this present case, stated that it was ‘the removal of
the danger to life not the mere subdual of risk of catastrophe, that we
saw in and made us favor Ordinance No. 8027. That reason, unaffected by
Ordinance No. 8187, compels the affirmance of our Decision in G.R. No.
156052.’”
In its petition seeking the transfer of the oil terminals out of
Pandacan, SJS cited as an example and as a warning the burning of an oil
refinery in Ichinara City as a result of a 9.0-magnitude earthquake and
a tsunami that hit Japan last March 11.
It told the SC that the transfer of the oil terminals from Manila to
less populated area in Luzon could be the best preventive measure to a
massive, out-of-control burning of an oil refinery like what happened in
Japan.
“The incident that we witnessed in Japan is a forewarning of what may
happen to the Pandacan oil depot. The oil companies’ claim about safety
is purely theoretical whereas herein petitioners’ claim about the
hazard of the oil depot is purely empirical,” lawyer Vladimir Cabigao of
SJS said.
He said the tanks and pipelines in the Pandacan oil terminals were not designed to withstand a 9.0-magnitude earthquake.
“Even assuming that they are, the materials and the facility itself
would have been decrepit already by today because they have never been
upgraded by the oil companies ever since they were constructed fifty or
so years ago. Thus, the structural integrity of the pipelines and the
oil depots is questionable,” he said.
Estrada said that once the area is vacated, the city will open it to
businesses to address the problem of unemployment and to generate more
income to pay off the humongous debts of the city from utility
companies.
“There are a lot of businessmen who are willing to invest in Manila.
We can build a mall or a high-rise building. We can generate a lot of
jobs for thousands of people,” Estrada said in an interview.
Vice Mayor Francisco Domagoso said the SC decision sort of upheld the
prior ordinance that sought to put an end to the operation of the
Pandacan oil depots.
Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza called for the immediate
relocation of the controversial oil depots as he lauded the SC for
upholding the removal of the repository considered to be dangerous to
the crowded Manila community.
A former Manila mayor, Atienza initiated the removal of the oil
depots after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United
States, saying the move would protect residents from imminent danger of
being possible terror target.
The three-term mayor sought the passage by the city council of
Ordinance 8027 that reclassified Pandacan from industrial to commercial
zone. The ordinance made the putting up of the depots illegal in a
commercial zone.
