US medics leave out toxic waste 'victims'

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga - Some 100 dogs, cats and carabaos benefited last Thursday from the "veterinary care" mission conducted at the Sacobia area here by US soldiers participating in the "Balikatan 2000" war exercises in this former US military base.

But such health care missions are likely to leave out Pinatubo-displaced families now suffering from illnesses allegedly caused by toxic wastes left by the US Air Force here.

US Marine Col. Thomas Conant, commander of some 400 US soldiers now here for the joint military exercises, said the veterinary, medical and dental missions of the US forces do not include the Madapdap resettlement in Mabalacat town.

The People's Task Force on Bases Clean-up (PTFBC) has claimed that the deaths of at least 80 Madapdap resettlers were likely triggered by the toxic wastes.

All of the victims had lived at one time or another in an evacuation center at Clark where water from shallow wells was found to be allegedly contaminated with grease, oil, mercury and other toxic elements.

PTFBC local coordinator Nerissa Agustin said yesterday that other former occupants of the Clark evacuation center, now resettled in other sites in Central Luzon, are suffering from illnesses.

She identified three of them as Perlita Bernardo, 33, and Diane Liwanag, 5, who are both suffering from symptoms of leukemia, and a two-year-old boy, a certain Rafael, who is afflicted with cerebral palsy.

At the Camachiles resettlement, also in Mabalacat, one Gilbert Cordonesa, 8, was found suffering from acute anemia, while at Madapdap, Ryan Lopez, 17, is afflicted with a serious liver ailment.

In a study last year, the forensic office of the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) concluded that such ailments among the resettlers were unusual and could be correlated to toxic wastes which other studies had previously identified.

Although the itinerary of the US medical missions does not include the resettlements, Conant said requests could be made for future medical undertakings.

The VFA secretariat said some 3,000 residents of Barangays Sto. Nino, San Vicente and San Martin in the Sacobia area here also benefited from a US medical mission the other day. - With Ric Sapnu