Priority responses to the 2006 Guimaras oil spill, Philippines: Will history repeat itself?

• This paper studied the needs of Guimaras oil spill victims and the disaster response.
• Priority needs of the affected population were few and basic but not adequately met.
• Extra responses “diluted” priority relief operations and spawned unwarranted issues.
• Habitat rehabilitation especially of mangroves was the prominent response.
• Environmentalism was linked to the prominent response.

The Guimaras oil spill of 2006 was the worst environmental accident of the Philippine and coincidentally happened during a period of rapid progress in nationwide communication technology. This study took advantage of the massive media coverage of the incident to answer questions about the priority needs of the affected population, the prominent disaster response, and the rationale for the response. Techniques were combined to implement a descriptive analysis of the available information-interview of key respondents and news survey, substantiated by a document analysis of hardcopy and online materials, and content mapping in the integration and analysis.The priority needs of the oils spill victims were few and basic-a plain consequence of economic and physical dislocations. Yet, these needs were inadequately met because the many forms of disaster response “diluted” the relief operation and further spawned unwarranted issues that aggravated the situation. Habitat assessment and rehabilitation, especially of mangroves, emerged as the prominent response. Aggressively pushed by experts and advocates, it competed with and overshadowed the priority action on the distressed population.The environmental response is linked to a lingering foreign crusade. The environmentalism is unregulated and turning adverse, but it continually succeeds because, apart from its domineering advocacy, as foreign imposition, the society is naturally resilient to it, Philippine laws support it and, particularly, even intellectuals espouse it. Moreover, there exists a large pool of potential environment advocates in the country with hardly 1% of which being development-oriented.Other failures of the disaster response are discussed. The aftermath rippled with issues on litigations, irregularities and continuing research.