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THE
Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) washed its hands
over the implementing guidelines for the Oil Pollution
Compensation Act as it pointed to its head agency, the
Department of Transportation (DOTC) and Communications,
as now responsible over the rules.
By law,
the rules should have been out in September or after 90
days since the law establishing a fund for oil spills
was enacted in July.
The
Marina said the DOTC may not be able to finish the
implementing guidelines within the year. They said this
is because DOTC officials may have to deliberate on some
salient points of the law, including slapping a fee for
every loading of petroleum products.
Marina
deputy administrator for operations Primo Rivera told
reporters they have already submitted the said
guidelines early this month, but most of the officials
led by DOTC undersecretary Elena Bautista will not be
available until early next month. The
Marina
is mandated to come up with the implementing rules and
regulations (IRR).
“The
ball is in their [DOTC officials] hands now. They will
have to decide if they will accept the IRR that we have
submitted to them,” Rivera said last week.
He
added, however, the DOTC can still revise what their
paper says.
Almost
all of the provisions
Marina
has already placed there, the DOTC can change, Rivera
explained.
One of
the provisions in the IRR still contains the setting up
of an oil pollution management fund, which will be
mainly sourced from the contributions of tankers every
time they load their products.
Government will charge 10 centavos for every liter of
all types of petroleum products.
Some 90
percent of the said fund, which will be managed by the
Marina, will be used for ‘quick response’ in case of an
oil spill or any sea accident, while the rest will be
used for research on disaster preparedness.
Industry
sources said the tanker operators are prepared to fight
the said implementing order as this will drive them out
of business.
“We
[tankers group] do not oppose the setting up of the
fund. What we don’t like is the manner by which the
government will implement it. That is basically
taxation,” a tanker operator told BusinessMirror.
The
tanker operators’ groups said they have seen so many
flaws in the law.
These
industry leaders added the law, “was not only a
knee-jerk reaction to the MT Solar 1 oil spill last
year,” but which Marina used because of the
10-centavo-per-liter charge.
The said
amount, according to these people, comprise between 20
percent to 60 percent of the gross revenues of the oil
haulers. The amount would eat up most of the funding
that was intended for safety of the vessel and the
public, said the people who wished to remain anonymous
for fear of reprisal.
The law
states that the fund should only be used for the
immediate containment, removal, and clean-up operations
of the Philippine Coast Guard in all oil pollution
cases, whether covered by the law or not.
The fund
can also be used for research, enforcement and
monitoring activities of relevant agencies such as the
Coast Guard, Marina, and the Philippine Ports Authority,
and other ports authority of the DOTC, Environmental
Management Bureau, and the Department of Energy. |
