LIMAY, Bataan- An official of the Petron Bataan Refinery (PBR) on Monday clarified that there was no explosion, no poisonous gas leak and no one died at the former Bataan Refinery Corp. in Limay, Bataan.
News about the explosion in the biggest oil refinery in the country and the death of two or more workers spread like wildfire through text messages in the province. This was aggravated by reports that workers were allegedly told to leave the refinery in barangay Alangan, Limay town.
Edgardo Ruiz, PBR community relations officer, admitted that they, too, have received such news from as far as Dinalupihan town. “Ito’y pinabubulaanan namin sapagka’t malabong may sumabog dahil naka-shut down kami at naka-regular maintenance.”
He said they could not understand where such news came from: “Isa lang ang suspetsa namin na baka nanggaling ang balitang ito sa mga empleyadong natanggal ng mga contractor.”
The community relations officer could not say how many workers were laid off but merely said that the laborers were under the refinery’s contractors.
Ruiz said there was a minor oil spill in the refinery that was immediately cordoned off and the workers told to go out for their safety. “Nagkaroon ng oil spill dahil sa maliit na butas sa tangke pero na-kontrol naman agad,” he said.
“Pinalabas ang mga trabahador para sa safety nila,” a refinery foreman said, “the workers were told to leave the compound at about 7:45 a.m. but at 9 of the same morning were back to work.”
Ruiz said they are very cautious of even minor problems to protect the entire refinery “dahil petrolyo ang aming produkto.”
He said the refinery was on a 45-day shutdown but already preparing for start-up next week.
