Disappointing financial results, overstated reserves, calls for his resignation … so far, 2004 has not been a good year for Sir Philip Watts. So the last thing the Shell chairperson needs is a major terrorist attack on his massive oil depot in downtown Manila.
That, though, is just the fear of local residents and politicians in the Philippines, who have demanded that Shell shut the Pandacan depot, one of Asia’s biggest. Hundreds of thousands of people live close by in slum housing and shanty towns, and the plant is less than a kilometre away from the official residence of Gloria Arroyo, the country’s pro-United States president.
But Shell is fighting the city government’s attempts to close the plant —even though the Philippines has been on heightened terror alert ever since Fathur al-Ghozi, the notorious bomb-maker, died in a shoot-out with Filipino police last year. Al-Ghozi was a leading member of Jemaah Islam-iyah, the Islamic extremist group blamed for the Bali bombing.
Local campaigners are furious with Shell. ”If the Pandacan complex is targeted by terrorists, the devastation will be unimaginable,” said community representative Hope Tura. ”This is a heavily built-up, residential area. Shell has no business being here.”
But the Anglo-Dutch oil giant is unrepentant. In response to fears of terrorism, it is beefing up security and shutting down 28 oil tanks closest to the dwellings that border the depot. It has refused to close altogether, however, despite the Manila city council’s decision in 2001 to reclassify Pandacan as commercial rather than industrial land and order Shell out.
The company has gone to court to overturn Manila’s decision, and the case is likely to be held up in the Filipino court system for years.
Meanwhile, the plant stays open.
A Shell spokesperson said it had enlisted the mayor of Manila’s backing for its compromise plan to scale back operations at the plant, which supplies half of the fuel consumed in the Philippines. ”Pandacan is an important site for us and the Philippines, and just backing out is not an option,” she said. — Â