Environmentalists are keeping a tight watch on the Department of Energy's oil exploration drilling in Tañon Strait , which is scheduled to start this week.

The drilling will take place on board a floating oil rig which was towed to the site, some three kilometers off the coast of the municipalities of Aloguinsan and Pinamungahan in Cebu .

These areas are directly across the towns of La Libertad and Jimalalud in Negros Oriental. But the fear of scientists is the possible harm that the noise of underwater blasting would have on the sea creatures.

Two weeks ago, some 170 marine scientists who had met in Iloilo had

passed a resolution opposing any oil exploration activity in the Ta ñ on strait, citing its unique biodiversity as a protected seascape.

Energy Secretary Angelo Reyes held a forum with environmentalists,

stakeholders and their contractor, the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company, Ltd., at the University of San Carlos , Cebu City last Wednesday.

Silliman University President Dr. Ben Malayang III accompanied a battery of scientists, legal experts and theologians to the dialog.

Reyes said that the exploratory drilling for oil in the Tanon strait will start on Thursday. He said this date was set some two or three years ago. “This is something that you don't decide on overnight,” he said, as he allayed fears that the welfare of the fishermen and the environment would be ignored.

Sensing that there was nothing anyone could do to stop the exploratory drillings pending exhaustive environmental studies, Malayang offered the expertise of scientists from Silliman University to monitor the water quality and behavior of cetaceans, or marine mammals, while the drilling will continue for two months.

Aside from the formation of a multi-partite monitoring team, lawyer Mikhail Lee Maxino, director of the Salonga Center for Law and Development based in Silliman University , had also demanded that the Japex set up an Environmental Guarantee Fund which could be used to immediately address possible problems that may arise from the operation.

Reyes, however, clarified that this activity that will be carried out by the Japex for a two-month period is only limited to oil exploration. “This is not commercial drilling yet. In the event that oil is found in Ta ñ on strait and its quantity is sufficient and declared mineable, it would need a full-blown environmental study and a law from Congress.

Malayang also pointed out the need to put a value on the present resources found in Ta ñ on strait, which may be very vital in determining whether actual commercial oil drilling will be feasible.

“We might be jeopardizing the vital resource for an unknown commodity,” he said.*AP

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