The government will soon establish sea-lanes for vessels carrying oil and other hazardous chemicals to keep them away from "ecologically-sensitive areas" and avert an environmental disaster similar to the recent oil spill here, according to Tourism Secretary Ace Durano.

In Manila, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez created a special task force to determine who should be held liable for the oil spill.

In a meeting with the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) on Monday night, President Gloria Arroyo ordered the Philippine Coast Guard to identify the sea-lanes and present them at the NDCC meeting on September 6, Durano said.

Durano added that Arroyo would also issue an executive order creating the sea-lanes and formulating measures to avert another disaster of the magnitude of the oil spill caused by the sinking of the MT Solar I in the Guimaras Strait.

The Visayan Sea could be one of the areas where oil tankers would be prohibited to travel, Durano said.

During an NDCC meeting, Durano said Petron Corporation, which owns the MT Solar I, was amenable to the policy even if it required the oil firm to incur extra expense as their vessels would have to take a longer route.

The order to establish sea-lanes came after several beach resorts here suffered a drop in tourist arrivals due to the oil slick. Durano said there were at least 367 cancellations, which when translated to lost opportunity would be about 3.5 million pesos (Bt2.6 million).

But Durano made it clear that only seven of the province's 24 resorts were affected.

He added that these were mostly on the southern and eastern portions of the island-province.

It's "business as usual" for the majority of the resorts here, Durano added.

Meanwhile Melvin Purzuelo of the Save Our Seas Movement said using hair and feather in the oil spill booms could do more harm than good for the environment.

"Chicken feathers smell bad. We need to reduce the smell so we can use these feathers otherwise we'll just add to the bunker oil fumes," Purzuelo said.

Hair would take very long time to decompose, not to mention the chemical treatments made before these were cut that could affect other life forms like sea grass and mangroves, he added.

"With no less than Arroyo pitching for the gathering of hairs, we expect these coming in very huge volumes soon," Purzuelo said.

Locally available absorbent materials like rice straws, corn cobs, jute sacks, and saw dusts have been used as indigenous oil spill booms to contain and collect oil from the Guimaras shores and the towns of Ajuy and Concepcion in Northern Iloilo, said Purzuelo.

Philippine Daily Inquirer

Asia News Network

Guimaras, Philippines