CDC, not US, to clean Clark of toxic waste

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — The state-owned Clark Development Corp. (CDC) has finally decided to clean up toxic wastes in at least two sites in this former US Air Force base, a task which Foreign Affairs Sec. Domingo Siazon said here yesterday was the "moral responsibility" of the US government.

In an interview here during a "high-level" conference on the toxic waste issue, Siason said that the US government considered the $10-billion assets that the US military left here as virtual compensation for the toxic wastes, which have reportedly caused the deaths and illnesses of local folk.

Bases Conversion Development Authority chairman and CDC president Rogelio Singson said that some P5 million has been allocated for the clean-up of the Wagner aviation grounds and the former Philippine areas exchange motor pool which were among the 14 sites cordoned off by the CDC two years ago.

The 14 sites were identified as contaminated by the Western International study commissioned by the CDC in 1997.

Siazon, however, cautioned against blaming the US military for all forms of contamination at its former military bases in the country.

"We can not readily determine the cause of some of the contamination which might be attributed to other factors," he said.

As the task force met at Hilltop restaurant at this former US base, some 200-alleged victims of Clark toxic waste, assisted by the environmental group Greenpeace International, "signed" their names on five computers installed at the Madapdap resettlement in nearby Mabalacat town.

Greenpeace officer Francis de la Cruz said that the "victims" keyed-in their names to the "Cyberpetition for a toxic-free future" page of the Internet, which were transmitted electronically to Johannesburg in South Africa, venue of the fifth international conference of the Inter-governmental Negotiating Committee on the phaseout of persistent organic pollutants (POP).

The conference in South Africa is expected to ratify a treaty that would ban the production of 12 toxic chemicals included in the list of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP). Most of the 12 chemicals were among those traced by Weston International at Clark.

Noting that US responsibility in the clean-up of toxic wastes in the Philippines would require legislation, Siazon nevertheless said he would support Sen. Sergio Osmeña’s effort to lobby with US Senators for the US government to extend medical and other forms of assistance to alleged victims of toxic wastes at Clark and Subic.