Toxic waste ‘victims’ urge Arroyo to bring up their plight to Bush

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga — Hundreds of "victims" of toxic wastes left behind by the US military at its former Clark and Subic bases are marching to the US embassy today in their bid to urge President Arroyo to bring up their case to US President George W. Bush who will visit the country on Oct. 18.

The People’s Task Force on Bases Clean-Up (PTFBC) claimed that 780 former base workers have died in recent years due to their exposure to toxic wastes, while 938 others are now ailing.

The number of "victims" include 8,000 Filipinos believed to have been exposed to asbestos at the former US Subic naval base and who are now dying of asbestosis, a form of lung cancer, at a rate of two to four per month, the PTFBC said.

"This time, we need to make sure that the Philippine government negotiates from a position of strength. We call on President Arroyo to (uphold) our equal right for safe environment and to demand US responsibility for the clean-up of the former bases and compensation for the victims," said PTFBC chairman Teofilo Juatco.

He said that since the US military left its former bases at Clark and Subic, Mrs. Arroyo is "the only president who has not raised the issue with the US government."

During the 1992 visit of former US President Bill Clinton, the Philippine government raised the toxic waste issue at Clark and Subic.

Clinton was reported to have vowed to look into the problem, although the US Center for Disease Control (CDC) ignored in the same year a request by the Department of Health (DOH) for technical assistance for further studies on toxic contamination at Clark and Subic.

In 1998, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) said in a statement that some parts of Clark and Subic were indeed contaminated with US wastes.

This prompted then US Defense Deputy Undersecretary Sheiri Goodman to declare that the Philippines "waived any right to demand clean-up in return for the agreement of the US not to seek compensation for the value of substantial improvements the US left behind (at the former US bases)."

During the Estrada administration, a government inter-agency task force also concluded that the US left behind toxic wastes at Clark and Subic.

In May 2000, the Congress’ joint committee on environment and natural resources, as well as the committee on health, demography and foreign relations also came out with a report affirming earlier reports of toxic waste contamination at Clark and Subic.

Diplomatic Means

The committees recommended "diplomatic" means in seeking US response to the need for "remediation" as well as for US help for preventive and curative measures for those affected by the wastes.

PTFBC president Myrla Baldonado said that while the US does not have any law obligating it to clean up its wastes in other countries, "the US government paid for the clean-up of other countries that played host to its military forces, such as Germany, Italy and Japan."

The alleged toxic waste victims have formed the Yakap-Subic, composed mostly of former workers of the Subic naval base, and the Saup-Toxic Waste Victims (Saup-TWV), composed largely of Mt. Pinatubo victims who used a former motorpool of the US Air Force at Clark as temporary evacuation center after the volcano erupted in 1991.

Yakap-Subic’s Braullion Pabillare Jr., a former supervisor at the US military’s ship repair facility at Subic, said, "Out of some 43,000 naval workers and employees who were exposed to contaminants (at the facility), there are about 8,000 who were exposed specifically to asbestos."

Asbestos has been known as a cancer-causing insulation material commonly used a few years ago by the US for the boilers of its warships.

He said Filipino workers at Subic were not provided protective gear. "Today, out of the 445 members of Yakap-Subic who were exposed to asbestos, 115 are suffering from asbestosis, and we have been monitoring at least two to four deaths a month among them," he reported to PTFBC.

Another former Subic worker, Nicanor Merino, who operated a forklift at the US naval magazine (ammunition) area, blamed the mysterious death of his 10-year-old son to the effects of toxic wastes at the Cabalan dumpsite at Subic.

He said his two other children are now afflicted with cerebral palsy, an ailment found among scores of children who were either born or had stayed at the evacuation center at Clark.

The PTFBC, which has been monitoring the health of about 20,000 families who had stayed at the Clark evacuation center even after their transfer to resettlement sites, cited records that 328 children and adults are now suffering from "toxic waste-related ailments such as cerebral palsy, kidney disorders, tumors, blood diseases, deformities, delayed development, and congenital diseases."

The group claimed that 195 of the evacuees have died of such ailments.