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The Cebu City-based nongovernmental organization Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center, or FIDEC, and Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fishermen across the country, have identified 13 foreign and local companies currently engaged in aggressive oil and gas exploration around the country. The Department of Energy has announced that at least 20 petroleum firms have expressed interest in exploring the country's oil and gas deposits in offshore areas.
FIDEC executive director and veteran environmental campaigner Vince Cinches said Japan Petroleum Exploration Corp. and Forum Exploration Canada are in charge of the oil hunt in Tañon Strait, a protected seascape separating the island provinces of Cebu and Negros.
During a consultation among fisherfolk, marine scientists and environmentalists last month in Cebu City, Cinches said investors in offshore mining are now encroaching on the waters of Mindanao to search for oil deposits.
Pamalakaya confirmed the plan of the Philippine National Oil Company-Exploration Corp. and the Malaysian oil firm Petronas Carigali Overseas to undertake a joint exploration off the coast of Culasi town in Antique. Proponents said the oil exploration would cost Petronas and the Philippine government US$20 million in total investment, which would yield 160 million barrels of oil. This is the biggest oil deposit in the country according to Rafael Lotilla, former Philippine energy secretary.
The Philippine government said over 20 firms had eyed energy exploration contracts in the country, specifically in nine areas offered for petroleum exploration, with an aggregate total of 71,357.3 square kilometers.
But FIDEC and Pamalakaya said the shopping mall-like three-day sale approach of the Department of Energy was paying good dividends for the government's transnational clients and the bureaucrat capitalists in the administration at the expense of the Filipino people and the environment.
"Where they will fish? In Japan? In China? In Taiwan? Everything has been identified as a site for offshore mining," the Pamalakaya group said.
While Australian firms AustralAsia and Ottoman Energy groups are conducting oil and gas exploration activities in the Cebu-Bohol Strait and Northeastern Leyte, another Australian company, NIDO Petroleum Ltd., is training it sights on the Northwest Palawan.
In its disclosure to the Australian Stock Exchange, NIDO said it had issued 78.2 million ordinary shares to investors in Hong Kong, the United Kingdom and Saudi Arabia to raise cash for the funding of its exploration activities off the coast of the island province. David Whitby, NIDO managing director, said the company had raised US$17.9 million from the issuance of 78 million ordinary shares to prospective investors. The funds, according to Pamalakaya, would be used to finance oil exploration in Northwest Palawan. The Otto Energy Ltd. group is also following the NIDO hunt for investor partners.
Not to be outdone, the Scotland registered but Dutch owned Premier Oil is set to undertake oil exploration off the coast of Ragay Gulf in Bicol region. The Dutch group will invest between US$3.6 million and $9.6 million for oil exploration with support funding from partners Pearl Energy of Singapore and the PNOC-EC.
Meanwhile, the oil exploration group Wellex Petroleum Corp. said it has signed a partnership with a subsidiary of China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., or Sinopec, one of China's biggest oil companies, to venture into oil mining activities in the Philippines. The Filipino mining group said Sinopec is now in the process of applying for exploration permits in the Palawan and Samar areas.
The Philippine government is expecting to generate at least US$180 million in fresh investments from opening the country's oil-potential waters to foreign investors, according to Department of Energy undersecretary Guillermo Balce.
"The government is inviting investors as if it is a huge realty corporation conducting regular open house sessions. This is tragic, really tragic," Pamalakaya said. FIDEC and Pamalakaya have warned of a severe fish crisis if the government does not cancel all offshore mining activities in the Visayan Sea, in Palawan and other parts of the country, adding that the far-reaching effect of oil exploration could lead to a decrease of 600,000 metric tons in the yearly production of fish in the country, or approximately 20 percent annually.
The groups said the offshore mining in Central Visayas and other parts of the Visayan Sea alone will affect not less than 100,000 small fishermen and 500,000 dependents, and will further exacerbate the problem of food security for 87 million Filipinos.
FIDEC and Pamalakaya, together with their networks of lawyers, scientists, academicians, lawmakers and international supporters, will challenge the constitutionality of offshore mining activities in the Philippines before the Supreme Court. It is hoped the high tribunal will do its part to protect the environment and choose people's lives and livelihood over the corporate agenda for super profits and government officials' penchant for fat kickbacks and commissions.
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(Gerry Albert Corpuz is a correspondent of Bulatlat.com, an alternative Philippine online news site. He is also head of the information department of Pamalakaya, a national federation of small fisherfolk organizations in the Philippines. His website is www.gerryalbertcorpuz.motime.com, and he can be contacted at themanager98@yahoo.com. ©Copyright Gerry Albert Corpuz.)
