Philippines: Oil spill traced to corruption, incompetence

OFFICIALS of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources investigating the Guimaras oil spill have promised to release the results of their inquiry some time this week.

If the DENR officials make good on their promise, it would be an improvement over the investigation of a similar incident on December 18 last year when a barge of the state-owned National Power Corp. ran aground off Semirara Island. The Napocor barge spilled 364,000 liters of fuel and ruined vast stretches of the coast of Antique province.

Informed quarters, however, doubt that DENR would be able to wrap up its probe of the Guimaras oil spill as quickly as promised. They point out that the investigation of the Semirara incident took at least three months to complete