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Damned Petron!

Hi Matt,
i read with great alarm the situation you are dealing with and send you my best wishes and thanks for the efforts. It is indeed another case of our need for oil backfiring on us. I would like to blame just the corporations, but i am afraid that we are all to blame - we like to travel and are locked into a consumerist culture.
Until there is a complete re evaluation and practical re-ordering of society along sustainable and environmental lines we are going to have these accidents.
I worry that the wake up equation - disaster = change things, is just not happening and the message not getting across to people. And it is people that have to change, for they are the ones who consume and while they consume, drive around and waste precious resources it quickens the time for an earth made uninhabitable. That is where we stand and we know it... the challenge is to awaken a spoilt society to where they are heading.

Good luck with the actions and all that you do.

And people ask me why I won't drive a car...

Hi Matt!

You paint a vivid and distressing picture of what's going on over there. You guys are all doing an amazing job – both through your hands on efforts and alerting the media attention to where it is needed most. Keep up the hard work – you might get to grow that garden someday!

Shame on PETRON!

No amount of surveying by PETRON will clean the seas, what Guimaras needs is the much sought after funds to support the clean up. every second counts, each minute means death to us all.

Hi Matt,Var yii
great mission naa
take care and happy on board

pook pook

Hey guys:
I am truly amazed at your dedication in helping clean-up the oil spill from Solar 1. I've read some of the comments blaming it all on Petron but i think the foremost to be blamed are the corrupt captain and his crew. With the initial reports of the Marina investigation out, it is quite clear that "nag-paihi" ang Solar1. That's the term they use when a sip or barge sells some of its cargo at sea without the official knowledge of Petron but definitely with connivance from its own people. Obviosuly, the Capt. & his crew wanted some easy money or they ma have been doing this regularly kaya lang this time--- nabulalyaso. It got messed up. With the holes discovered and open latches which are unlikely made by the waves---kitang-kita the traces of the theft. We hope that MARINA will act immediately and seek out the other barge who received the illegal oil from Solar 1 before the accident. The whole fiasco is another result of the MASSIVE GRAFT & CORRUPTION in our country. From the Coast Guard to MARINA, Solar 1 owners, PETRON--these day-time robbers must be identified and made to answer for the crime. A crime whish is hurting thousands of people today and in the days yet to come.

And MARINA is mainly responsible fore official neglect. We heard that a few years ago, some foreigners and Filipino businessmen wanted to invest in new double-hulled barges and use them to transport oil within the Phils. Unfortunately, their permit was denied by MARINA. Apparently the cartel controling the transport of oil within the country wanted to optimize using their unreliable, old single hulled barges even if they have already profited so much from them. As long as it still works---there goes again the minimalist attitude of our authorities. Basta kumikita sila at ang mga kaibigan nila---they put our fishing grounds and the lives of their fellow Filipinos at risk.

After the Guimaras oil spill, suddenly MARINA has decided to ban single hull barges in two years time. Vessels which have been banned in other countries a long time ago. Tsk. . .tsk. . .tsk. Why do we have to wait for an accident such as the Guimaras oil spill to happen before we DO THE RIGHT THING. When are we going to take the necessary, basic safety precautions to protect our people, their lives and livelihood and our natural resources and prevent accidents such as this? Why do we have so many INEPT, irresponsible, GREEDY people working in the MARINA, the Coast Guard, shipping companies, Petron & other oil companies?

Still, the bottom line in this accident as in most problems facing our country is man's insatiable greed for money, pleasure and power.

With GREENPEACE and all the spirited people of Guimaras and every citizen who tries to help thru prayers, volunteer work, donations and spreading the news about protecting and preserving our environment---there is HOPE. I hope that thru this website and all the other awareness drive conudcted by yours and similar orgs, more people will stand up for nature.