Fisher groups to file raps vs DOE, Nor-Asian

Business Mirror
Thursday, 11 December 2008

Fisherfolk organizations plan to file charges of human-rights violations against the Department of Energy (DOE), the military and Australian firm Nor-Asian Energy Ltd., which is conducting oil exploration in the waters off southeastern Cebu.

Vince Cinches, executive director of the Central Visayas Fisherfolk Development Center, said they also sent a letter-complaint to United Nations Commission on Human Rights and the UN Food and Agriculture Organization on the plight of the affected fishermen in Cebu.

“What is sadder is that the military has joined in and had become paid hacks and goons of Nor-Asian,” Cinches said. “We [Cebu] have become a laboratory for the DOE on their service contracts all over the country. They are testing their methods here.”

Gloria Ramos of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in Cebu said the DOE seems to be rushing service contracts in and around Cebu, when there is still a case pending before the Supreme Court.

Ramos and other IBP lawyers had filed a case before the Supreme Court in behalf of dolphins, whales and other marine “residents” of Tañon Strait in the middle of the offshore oil explorations by the local firm of Japan Petroleum Exploration (Japex).

She said the DOE does not have the authority to grant service contracts. She said service contracts can only be given by the President with authority from Congress.

“There is transparency right now. The DENR is not giving the public the report of the multisectoral monitoring team of Japex,” she said.

“The SC has given our complaint due course, meaning this is set to be a landmark case,” Ramos said. She added the DOE should wait for the Supreme Court decision before pushing ahead with other service contracts.

The Visayan Sea in Central Philippines is considered the heart of marine ecosystem in the world.

Cinches criticized the exploration being conducted off the municipal waters of Sibonga and Argao towns without consultations with the affected fishermen.

He also lamented the involvement of soldiers from the Cebu-based 78th Infantry Battalion who were allegedly deployed in the two towns to scare off fishermen from opposing the project.

The Commission on Human Rights is already looking into the complaints of the fishermen.

Nor-Asian is a company jointly owned by Australia’s Ottoman Energy Ltd. and AustralAsian Energy Ltd.

It is the second company to push its oil search in the seas around Cebu.

A local company of Japex recently withdrew its efforts in western Cebu off Pinamungajan town after exploration drills indicated that oil in the area is not of commercial quantity.

Nor-Asian is searching for oil in four locations in the Philippines—off the seas of Calauit Island, Bohol Strait and off Cabilao Island, also in Bohol and Marantao in Palawan.

The prospect in Argao has an estimated recoverable reserve of up to 270 million barrels of oil, while the one in Cabilao is estimated to contain as much as 145 million barrels.