Signs of hope in Guimaras © 2006

ONE month after the M/V Solar I sank in the waters off the island of Guimaras, I received a text message from a colleague asking me if I was available for an assignment in the Visayas. When I said, “yes,” I was advised to take a flight to Iloilo City and proceed to Guimaras for a five-day coverage of the bunker oil spill clean up. I received the text message on a Sunday and the request was for me to take the early Monday flight. Since it was a short notice, I was not able to leave Monday – I left early Tuesday morning.

I was a replacement storyteller for another writer who had to return to Manila on urgent matters. And because of the exciting nature of the assignment, I simply could not say no to the offer. I immediately asked my managing editor if I can take three days off from my regular work schedule so I could travel to Guimaras. It was my only chance to once again get out of the airconditioned comfort of the office and get the smell and sweat of a challenging coverage.

The clean-up was organized by Petron and several government agencies. Petron is the petrochemical company whose bunker oil was loaded in the ill-fated tanker that sank near the island.
I have read many reports on the sea accident, and from what I have learned, the damage to the environment and to the lives of the people on the island – particularly the fishermen - was close to catastrophic.

Although I brought my camera with me, my primary purpose in going to Guimaras is to write stories and not take photos. My role in the documentation was limited to interviewing key personalities involved in the clean-up – nothing less, nothing more.
When I landed at the port of Jordan, Guimaras from Iloilo City on Tuesday morning, I was surprised to see a bustling port. I had imagined the place to be a ghost town after what had happened there, but what I saw was the other way around. Hundreds of people – boatmen, porters, passengers, as well as foreign tourists – were busy going about their usual business.
I proceeded to the Jordan tourist information center and met Sarah Jean Diaz, a tourism information assistant. She told me that the oil spill was indeed tragic for the Guimaranons. However, she cut short of thanking God that the environmental accident happened during the lean season, when foreign and local visitor arrivals are at a low. She expressed hope that the clean-up would soon end so everything would go back to normal.
The road trip to Nueva Valencia in the southern part of Guimaras was smooth and fast. The roads leading to the beach resorts and the coastal villages that were affected by the oil spill are well-paved. Bidol, our driver, was very good in maneuvering his orange-red multicab on the curves. Former Associated Press TV cameraman Tim Alipalo would often signal Bidol to stop his multicab so he could take video shots of the island’s vast agricultural resources.
The documentary team I rendezvous with consisted of two photographers (Alex Baluyut and Jimmy Domingo) and cameraman Tim. They’ve been on the island for seven days before I arrived and they all looked wasted. The team was staying at the Freelance Beach Resort at Alubihod beach, Nueva Valencia. It was also the same place where President Arroyo visited a few days before my arrival. She was there to meet with local and national officials to plan the clean-up.
The white sand beach and the crystal clear blue water of Alubihod beach were very enticing. There was not a single trace of oil slick on the beach and on the water. And I asked myself, “where is the oil spill?”

I wanted to take a swim in the beautiful ocean but pressure to work immediately on the tourism story forbade my desire to jump into the water and enjoy it.
Halfway on my story, team leader Alex Baluyut, handed me a bottle of ice cold San Miguel beer. On one side of the wooden table I was working on was a palanggana filled with fresh and steaming sumptuous talaba (oysters). On the other wooden table facing the blue ocean, a big serving of newly-cooked sinigang na talakitok was waiting to be devoured by Tim, Alex and Jimmy. I asked if was safe to eat oil spill talaba and what I got for an answer were a couple of shrugs.
Alex sure knows how to pamper me. He knows my weaknesses. And with more encouraging support coming from Jimmy and Tim slurping on the steaming talakitok, I tried to deviate from the obvious treat. I continued to punch on the laptop keyboard trying in vain to resist the temptation that was laid infront of me ... but it was a restraint in futility.
Just when I was about to finish the story at 4 o-clock in the afternoon, Alex received a call from Manila requesting him to immediately dispatch a writer to interview marine biologist, Dr. Angel Alcala, for an update on the fact-finding survey that his team of scientists did on the oil spill affected areas of Guimaras.
The problem was that Alcala is in Siliman Univerisity in Dumaguete City, and the only time he can be interviewed was Wednesday after lunch. Dumaguete City is in Negros Oriental – another island in central Visayas.

Tim and I were dispatched to catch the last ferry to Bacolod City that same afternoon (Tuesday), and on Wednesday morning, we were riding a rented van on a four-hour ride to Dumaguete City. I only have one hour to interview the former environment secretary. On our way to Dumaguete, I made several phone interviews with local officials in Guimaras so I could finish my tourism story.
After the Alcala interview, we had to drive back to Bacolod City so we could take the early Thursday ferry to Iloilo and then another boat ride to Guimaras.

Back in Guimaras island, I saw several foreigners who had just disembarked from the ferry. I found out that they were Japanese students and Australian vacationers.
I asked one of the Australians, Bill Glover, why he went to Guimaras despite news of the oil spill. His blunt answer to me was: “It’s only temporary! Soon nature will rehabilitate the affected areas and everything will be back to normal.”
On Friday, September 14, Alex and Jimmy dropped me and cameraman Tim at the village of Lucmayan. It is an inlet village surrounded by fishponds that led to a vast mangrove reserve and out to the coves called sitio Budburan.
What I saw in Lucmayan made me what I am again – a photographer. It was an irresistible photographic subject that needs to be frozen on film and digital. The scene was horrendous in a sense that the place seemed to have been turned into a waste dump.
From what I heard from the people who live there, the place was as spotless as white before the oil spill happened. When we got there, the place was almost black with oil stains. The water that was once crystal clear is now a brackish pond of useless liquid.
The bancas (outriggers) that had been brought inland by the fishermen during the early days of the oil spill has blackened due to contamination by the oil slicks.
Tim and I took a banca ride to the coves of Budburan to document the clean-up progress in the area. The sight was breathtaking! It was paradise! And it was also as if the four horsemen of the apocalypse passed by the place and incinerated it.
The scenery above sea level had a surreal eerie stillness. Dozens of seemingly "choking" islets seemed to jut out of the water to grasp for precious air.
But below sea level, the stillness of the sea showed life underneath us. I saw hundreds of star fishes adorning the landscape under the water. The sea grasses danced with the waves created by the banca. I saw lots and lots of shallow water fish swimming in every direction. "They're alive!" I exclaimed.

I took a lot of photographs of what I thought was nature’s awesome way of silently surviving man’s reckless disregard for the environment.
As we neared the shores of the islets, the harsh reality of an oil spill changed our mood from ebullience to melancholic. It was a poignant scene. The mangroves had been severely affected. The roots were pitch black … but I saw some signs of hope on the green leaves branching out for air and nutrients.
Several outriggers carrying clean-up workers arrived and immediately went to work. They replaced worn out booms with new absorbent ones that were supplied by Petron.

They hauled hundreds of sacks filled with contaminated debris. I could see a glimmer of hope on their mask-covered faces as they load sack after sack of debris into the bancas.
The sacks, I was told, would be hauled by trucks and brought to a huge barge. The debris would then be taken to a cement factory in Misamis Oriental on the island of Mindanao.
The fishermen of Lucmayan have now become oil spill clean-up workers. They form part of what Petron calls the Ligtas Guimaras program – a program aimed at bringing Guimaras back to its pristine state. They were paid Php 300 pesos for five hours of cleaning the affected areas.
The women of Lucmayan were also helping the men by gathering dried banana leaves so they could make alternative booms. As I looked at their pensive faces, I could tell that there is nothing in this world they could wish for but to get rid of the oil that has damaged their fishing grounds. At least, the women of Lucmayan showed their resolve in bringing life back to their village.
I also learned that the women were also being paid the same amount as the men were. The same was done in other villages affected by the oil spill.
One of the workers that I talked to said he was happy with the amount being paid to them by Petron. “It’s better than having no work at all,” said Rolando Gaquet, a council member of Lucmayan.
Majority of the residents in the coastal villages of Guimaras Island are dependent on fishing as their primary source of livelihood. Now they want the government and other private agencies to help in the rehabilitation of their marine biodiversity.
Petron health and safety personnel in Lucmayan said that more than 500 metric tons of debris had already been shipped to Misamis Oriental.
Based on a report released by the National Disaster Coordinating Commission on September 13, the massive oil spill has affected 39,004 people or 7,870 families in the provinces of Iloilo, Guimaras and Negros Occidental.
As of September 22, Petron officials have reported that 29 villages in five municipalities affected by the oil spill in Guimaras province had been almost cleaned of pollutants and are just awaiting rehabilitation.
The updated report also stated that a total of 4,727 families (23,635 persons) in Guimaras province were affected. Many of those affected had been hired in the cash-for-work program of the petrochemical company.

In its website, Petron claims to have already cleaned more than 126 kilometers of shoreline with the help of local communities under the “Cash for Work” scheme.

To date, it has collected nearly 1,700 metric tons of debris. It is also working with environmental experts from University of the Philippines-Visayas and Silliman University to create a roadmap for the long-term rehabilitation of Guimaras.
The Guimaras tragedy was a wake up call for the Guimaranons. It has taught them a lesson they will never forget for a long long time. It is a wake up call too for other petrochemical companies and the government to ensure that this kind of sea accident don’t happen again.

Although blame is still to be rendered to those guilty of negligence, the oil spill has likewise awakened a multi-sectoral concern that more stringent measures should be enforced against careless handling of toxic wastes or pollutants.

The shipping lanes for oil tankers should also be re-charted to ensure that floating coffins like the M/V Solar I would not damage marine reserves and biodiversities in the future.
My five-day sojourn to Guimaras and Negros was an experience worthy of the trip. I am thankful to the team who invited me so I could share to the world the progress that is being done on the island.

I am also thankful that there was no reported fish kill in the waters of Guimaras. A fish kill is a negative indicator that pollutants have affected the marine biodiversity of a coastal area. The absence of a fish kill is an indication that there is hope for Guimaras.

And finally, I wish that all efforts should be made to make Guimaras and other places affected by the oil spill a much better place to live in.

Acknowledgement: Photos of Alex Baluyut, Tim Alipalo and sinigang na talakitok were taken by Jimmy Domingo. Photos of Jimmy Domingo and me interviewing Japanese tourists were taken by Alex Baluyut.