|
Manila: A London-based funding agency has indicated payments would be delayed as the number of residents filing for damages over last August's oil spill near Guimaras Island shows no sign of abating, a local paper said.
A total of 102,600 claimants, who represent 80 per cent of the 154,000 residents of the central Philippines island, is "incredulous," said Jose Nichols, deputy director and technical adviser of the International Oil Pollution Compensation Fund (OIPC), in a letter to Rahman Nava, governor of Guimaras Island. Compensation payments to Guimaras residents would be delayed, explained Nichols in his March 30 letter, a copy of which was given to the Inquirer.
Even residents below 18 years of age had applied for damages in violation of the 1992 conventions that regulate payment of damages for oil spills, Nichols said. The conventions limits payment of damages to heads of families in affected communities, he said.
MV Solar spilled 2.1 million litres of bunker fuel off Guimaras where it sank. The cargo vessel was transporting oil from Bataan in central Luzon to Zamboanga in the south.
|
