Oil Find in Negros
Fisherfolk fear displacement

After completing a one-year exploration activity, two firms, the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd (JAPEX) and a Canadian company Forum Exploration Inc. (FEI), are reportedly finalizing a 25-year contract to extract and produce oil from Tanon Strait. Tanon Strait is a narrow channel about 3 kms deep, 185-km long between Cebu and Negros.

By Karl G. Ombion
Bulatlat

Tanon Strait: A major fishing ground providing needs of millions in Visayas. But for how long?

ESCALANTE City, Negros Occidental – After completing a one-year exploration activity, two firms, the Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. Ltd (JAPEX) and a Canadian company Forum Exploration Inc. (FEI), are reportedly finalizing a 25-year contract to extract and produce oil from Tanon Strait. Tanon Strait is a narrow channel about 3 kms deep, 185-km long between Cebu and Negros in central Philippines. It is the extension of a major fishing ground with the Visayan seas in the north, and the Cebu Strait in the south.

The Department of Energy - Region 7  (DoE 7) revealed that Tanon Strait has huge deposits of oil and natural gas, estimated at one billion barrels, bigger than the Malampaya oil fields in Palawan. This corroborates earlier news releases from Cebu that oil and natural gas deposits were discovered by residents of the coastal city of Toledo and Alegria town along Tanon Strait.

But small fishers organizations and coastal residents along the towns of the strait are alarmed over these developments. They have forged an alliance called “Negros Fishers’ Forum.”  The Forum was organized to protect sea resources from the threat of destruction by government and corporate ventures such as the planned oil extraction at Tanon Strait.

According to sources from the Department of Agriculture - Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (DA-BFAR-R7), Tanon Strait is among the top ten major fishing grounds in the country.  It produces big and quality fish stocks, including blue marlin and tuna. It is also famous for its schools of dolphins, attracting a growing number of foreign and local tourists each year.

Seismic surveys and exploration

Editho Namion, spokesperson of the fisherfolk alliance Pamalakaya in Negros Negros, told Bulatlat that they noticed first signs of the oil exploration activity last year. Fisherfolks were alarmed over sightings of a big and modern boat, R/V Veritas Searcher, assisted by two tugboats Tbn-1 and Tbn-2, which was dragging long and huge cables and pipes and planting the materials deep into the Tanon seas for weeks. The same took place sometime early in May of this year.

With the help of PAMANA-Cebu and their allied NGOs in Cebu, Namion and his group checked with the DoE 7 and experts in Cebu. They found that the reported incidents were seismic surveys and preliminary explorations undertaken by FEI and JAPEX. Seismic survey using air guns and other digging equipment appraise strait’s the geophysical surface, including its magnetic property, electric conductivity and radioactive emission, to determine oil and natural gas deposits.

Oil exploration contract

Citing Cebu media reports, Director Victorino Labio of DoE 7 confirmed the explorations, saying that it is part of the government’s efforts to generate local oil and energy sources to meet the country’s rising demand for oil.  It also admitted that due to the government’s lack of funds and technological capacity, it sought the help of Japan and Canada, which have already been undertaking oil explorations in the country.

According to DoE records, the Canadian company FEI spent $3 million for the project, while the Japan JAPEX infused $6 million and provided the exploration facilities. Namion however added that “these exclude the loan acquired by the Philippine government as its counterpart in the project.”

Namion said that they learned that JAPEX and FEI have a seven-year contract with the Philippine government to undertake oil exploration in the country. So far, the survey they conducted at the Tanon Strait turned out to be the most promising, Namion added.

Corporate interests

Namion said that when these outputs are consolidated and finalized, the JAPEX and FEI will forge a 25-year contract with the Philippine government for the actual extraction and production of oil and natural gas deposits.

When this happens, Namion said, “it will not be the Philippine government and the Filipino people that will benefit from the project, but foreign monopoly corporations.”

“Not only will the Filipino people pay the costs of these projects in the form of loan payments but will also suffer the costs of the destruction of the environment. Worse, they will not even benefit from this project,” Namion warned.

Namion cited the case of the foreign-funded and controlled Malampaya Deep water Gas-to-Power Project at the off-shores of Palawan. The project, which started in 2001, was able to extract about three trillion cubic feet of gas, 120 million barrels of condensate, and around 57 million barrels of crude oil.

According to Namion, although the project is a joint venture between the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corporation (PNOC-EC), Shell Philippines Exploration (SPEX) and the Chevron Texaco, only the latter two companies control and benefit from it.

“What is even sad,” Namion added, “is that the government, through PNOC-EC, plans to sell its 10 percent stake in the Malampaya project.”

Environmental destruction

The Negros Fishers Forum said that the oil exploration will not only deprive fisher folks and coastal residents of their main source of living but it will ultimately destroy one of the major sources of living of most people in the Visayas islands.

The use of high-voltage air-guns used to dig the sea-beds of the Strait, and huge boats with long cables and pipes spread around the Strait, are dangerous to fishes, including the huge schools of dolphins, fish egg sanctuaries, corals, and other marine resources, and even small fishers plying the seas. Even commercial and cargo ships passing the Strait face the risks of being caught by electric shocks, and their motors by pipes and cables.

In fact, Namion said that some small fishers from the towns of Tuburan, Tabuelan, San Remigio, Medellin, Daan Bantayan, Sta. Fe and Toledo City on the side of Cebu, and those in Escalante, Toboso, Calatrava, Guihulngan, La Libertad , Vallerhermoso and San Carlos City in Negros, have already experienced the effects of the exploration. The effects include fishkills, destruction of fishing nets, and dangerous obstructions caused by pipes and cables.

Namion also reported that prior to the start of the exploration last year, some coastal towns in Cebu have passed ordinances like the establishment of more fish sanctuaries, color coding for fishers, coastal zoning plans and limiting fishing in municipal waters. These have affected hundreds of small fishers. In Negros, local government units in towns affected by the project, have also restricted fishing in municipal waters, and toward the middle of Tanon Strait, Namion added.

As a result, fishers have noted a marked reduction in the fish catch for the last six months, with most getting an average of only 1-3 kilos of small fishes for 3-6 hours fishing.

Wilbert Dimol, chairman of PAMANA-Sugbo, added that despite their protests, the Environment and Management Bureau have given the exploration project a Certificate of Non-Coverage.

Namion hit earlier moves by the provincial government of Negros Occidental to limit fishing in the Visayan Sea, establish more eco-tourism and so-called fish sanctuaries in several coastal towns in northern Negros.  It also had a joint proposal with the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) to impose a five-year moratorium in commercial fishing in the entire Visayan Sea.

Namion also slammed local government units for “not informing the people” of the oil exploration in the Tanon Strait, and “enforcing all sorts of restrictions without the benefit of public consultations and hearings.”

Projects and measures like these, Namion opined, are just offshoots of the government’s “globalization” policies, which now include its destructive mining code of 1995, fishery code of 1997, and the Agriculture and Fisheries Modernization Act, which favor big business and foreign monopoly capitalists corporations.

The Negros Fishers Forum, in a press conference yesterday, vowed “to oppose the project, and will exert all efforts to defend their rights and protect the national economy and patrimony from imperialist plunder and exploitation.”

Namion and Dimol said that they will “inform and mobilize as many small fishers and coastal residents in the Visayas, to effectively frustrate the implementation of the oil exploration project.

Richard Sarrosa, chairman of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas-Negros, said that they are also demanding that the Macapagal-Arroyo administration intervene on the issue, and take concrete measures to stop the harmful and destructive oil exploration at Tanon Strait. Bulatlat

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