- By Artchil B. Fernandez
ABSTRACT
The study was conducted as a follow up study on the social and economic consequences of the MT Solar 1 oil spill in Nueva Valencia, Guimaras. This was a purely descriptive research and a one-shot survey design was utilized. There were 309 household heads that served as the study’s respondents. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software was used to analyze the data. Results of the study revealed that the majority of the respondents were male, Roman Catholics ad fisher folks. They are in their middle ages, with elementary or high school level of educational whose average household size is 5.22. Results also showed that ten months after the oil spill, majority of the respondents reported no incident of the illness identified by the study except ubo (cough). Majority of the respondents have positive perception of their environment ten months after the oil spill. The majority of the respondents reported that their personal recreational activities were no longer affected by the oil spill ten months after it happened. Fishing is the main source of income of the majority of the respondents and their mean monthly income is Php 5,774.5. Majority of the respondents received compensation from the International Oil Compensation Fund and the mean amount received was Php 5,267. The mean fish catch before the oil spill was 57.23 per kilo but after the oil spill this went down to 23.29 per kilo. The drop in fish catch was statistically significant at 5% level. Net/gill net was the fishing gear majority of those who fish while “labay” was the fishing used by most of those who fish. Perceived serious personal and family problems of the respondents as well as their perceived urgent personal, family and community needs were: financial, food, livelihood and medicines while for the community, the perceived serious problems were the same except for the water supply.