Pollution task force up in Caloocan

The globally recognized Bensan Industries Inc., in an effort to vindicate its name after it was accused of being the source of toxic waste which threatens the health and safety of thousands of elementary school pupils and village residents has agreed to the creation of a multi-partite task force to pinpoint the exact source of the pollution in coordination with the Caloocan City government.

Benjamin Santos, owner of the plant in Barangay Bagbaguin engaged in refining used motor oil, said that during a recent meeting with City Administrator Mamerto Manahan, with teachers from Bagbaguin Elementary School, led by principal Namnama Edra, it was agreed that a 24-hour monitoring task force would be created to determine the real origin of the nuisance odor being complained of by the residents.

Residents of Grem Ville Subdivision, 27 teachers and some 1,500 public school pupils, had been complaining of severe headache, stomach pain, chest pain, cough, dizziness and vomiting everytime they inhale the pungent odor reportedly emanating from several factories around them.

Earlier, the complainants singled out Bensan Industries’ processing plant as the alleged source of the air and water pollution which the company vehemently denied, but after a series of dialogues with concerned sectors it was agreed upon that a monitoring team would be created to resolve the issue.

Mayor Reynaldo Malonzo had given Bensan Industries a five-year period to transfer its plant claiming it is no longer suitable in its present site as Barangay Bagbaguin is now becoming a densely populated area.

Barangay Babaguin is host to some 50 factories that according to Santos are also using oil in their operations.

The complainants said that oil spills from factories that flow to a creek, is threatening their safety as in at least two occasions in the recent past they caught fire but was immediately contained by alert residents.

But Santos said that of the factories, only Bensan Industries is using a multimillion-peso state-of-the-art pollution control device known as "Bensan Zero Waste Technology," an invention he perfected after almost 21 years and is now being adopted by the Australian government under license by his company.

Santos added that a liter of used oil could contaminate one million liters of drinking water.

Bensan Zero Waste Technology won Santos "The Most Outstanding Invention of the Year" award from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 1994.