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GUIMARAS ISLAND: Almost a year since the oil spill that ravaged
several kilometers of coastal areas and marine life in this island
province, the struggle of the victims for just compensation
continues.
A total of 11,227 claims, constituting the first
batch has been paid by the International Oil Pollution Compensation
(IOPC) reaching P118,852,193. The second batch of claimants,
however, is having difficulty.
Gov. Felipe Hilan-Nava said the commission is
carefully checking each claim and weeding out dubious ones. There
are 125,614 claimants in the second batch but the commission has
considered only 134 claims.
The 134, added Nava, are being screened for
final approval.
The commission said it has made some startling
discoveries, among which were the incomplete information on the
claim registration or insufficient signatures verifying that
claimants are bona fide fisherfolks. Some claimants have received
compensation but applied again. Others were underage. And several
more were not coastal residents but inland villagers.
Nava disclosed that of the five municipalities
in Guimaras, only the claims from Jordan and San Lorenzo towns
were approved with 129 and five claims, respectively.
Another discovery was that the number of
claimants exceeded the total population in Sibunag, Nueva Valencia
and Buenavista towns.
Nava said the municipality of Sibunag has a
population of 17,802 but the number of claimants reached 21,152;
Nueva Valencia has a population of 36,813 but the claims totaled to
37,764; and Buenavista has a population of 44,853 yet the number of
residents seeking compensation reached 45,451.
“In the last meeting of the National Disaster
Coordinating Council [in Manila], I left the room. I didn’t like
the tenor of [Presidential Adviser for Western Visayas Rafael]
Coscolluela and the Petron Corp. that residents here were
opportunistic,” he said.
Nava, however, admitted the number of claimants
surprised him.
Taking undue advantage
The oil spill hit Guimaras on August 11, 2006.
Coastal residents and fishermen later complained of low fish catch,
or no catch at all. Some had health-related complaints, for which
they were later promised compensation.
But Nava said some unscrupulous politicians used
the claims to further their own agenda. They used it as “part of
their campaign slogan [during the last elections] … they misguided
the people into making money the easy way.”
The commission tapped fisheries experts from the
International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited to help
assess the claims.
Claimants file damage claims with the amount of
compensation derived from declaration of losses and their average
income before the oil spill.
Those seeking compensation claimed they were
fisher folk, shell gatherers, fingerlings gatherers and fishpond
operators, among others.
Last month, Coscolluela claimed that the second
batch of claims was a political accommodation. “These claims were
filed before the elections, and somebody might have advised them to
file their claims justifying their loss [brought about by the
spill],” Coscolluela said.
--Panay News
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