Efforts to contain the oil spill in Guimaras Island are so concentrated that there seems to be nothing being done with what could be a bigger oil spill problem.

While it is true that the Guimaras oil spill is of such a big magnitude and that moves to control the effect of the spilled oil must be drastic and effective, we have to contend with another fact that oil is not only spilled by marine accidents involving oil tankers.

There is what we call the chronic oil spill problem. Not many of us know that oil is spilled along highways and other thoroughfares. Road oil spill comes out of leakages from engines and this spillage go all the way to the sea.

When rain pours, the oil on the road is washed away to the sewerage system which find their connections to inland waterways which in turn bring the oil to the sea.

Factories that use engines have to change their used oil and we just wonder how they go about the used oil disposal. Our simple logic tells us that many of these establishments dispose of their used oil through public sewers which, again, bring the contaminated waters to the sea.

We also wonder how our car care centers dispose used oil from the vehicles of their clients. If they just pour in the oil into the same public sewers, then they also contribute to the chronic oil spill problem.

The case is just as easily exhibited by the pathetic state of the Pasig River and other affected rivers in the country. The Manila Bay also shows its own share of the problem.

And before we even think of the magnitude of the Guimaras oil spill, let us not forget that this chronic oil spill happens everyday, in every urbanized and developing community across the nation.

I don’t know but if there is an honest to goodness research to be done about the chronic oil spill problem of the nation, I am positive that it will dwarf what we see to be a gigantic Guimaras oil spill problem.

If the Clean Air Act is any indication, then it is about time that the true state of our national waters should be studied and effective oil spill control measures should be implemented before we end up praying to God for a completely new environment.