Toxic wastes' death toll reaches 101, group claims

CLARK FIELD, Pampanga -- When 10-year-old Iris Pangan fell on her knees in her Grade 3 classroom in Barangay Tabun here seven years ago, she was never to be the same again.

In their small home at the Mawaque resettlement for lahar victims, her jobless parents observed yesterday the traditional ika-siyam or ninth day of her death last May 2. For seven years, she lived like a vegetable.

According to the People's Task Force on Bases Clean-up (PTFBC), Iris could be the 101st "victim" of toxic wastes allegedly left behind by Americans at their former military base here, which is now a special economic zone.

But Iris' case is different because her family never stayed at an evacuation center here where the PTFBC said the other "victims" once lived. The center's shallow wells were believed contaminated with toxic wastes.

Iris' grandmother, Ignacia Dungca, 75, said her granddaughter might have been exposed to toxic wastes after frequently bathing in a river emanating from Clark Field.

"We were often told that there was a big dumpsite used by the Americans inside the base not far from Tabun," she said.

Dungca said Iris was brought to various hospitals where doctors attributed her worsening condition to nervous system disorders.

"Iris used to be a very healthy and active girl until she involuntarily fell on her knees in her classroom. Since then, her condition had worsened until she became a living vegetable," she said.

Iris' family never moved to the Clark evacuation center after lahar flows hit Barangay Tabun in 1994. Finding the center too crowded, the Pangans stayed in other areas until they were given a new permanent home at the Mawaque resettlement site.

"We don't want to alarm people, but we have always considered the possibility of Clark's wastes eventually affecting nearby towns," said former municipal councilor Jad Dayrit, who is now a technical adviser of the municipal health and sanitation committee.

"I am very worried about this and I've always maintained that the people's health is not negotiable," Dayrit said.

In 1998, the PTFBC and the Canada-based International Institute of Concern for Public Health (IICPH) released the results of a three-year study on the health of people living in or near the former US Air Force Base.

The study covered 1,208 households in 11 areas in this town, and Barangay Balibago in Angeles City. The study, however, did not cover Barangay Tabun, where the Pangans resided.

The study found significant problems in the female reproductive system, the nervous system and the kidneys of residents. Poor health was also noted among children.

"To do nothing is to invite disaster," Dr. Rosalie Bertell, head of the IICPH, then said.

Jerry Basilio, president of the Urban Poor Association of this town, believes that contaminants at Clark have already reached outside communities.

He noted that in Barangay San Joaquin which is near a dumpsite of the former US Air Force Base, at least two children have developed hydrocephalus, which results in large skulls and mental retardation due to the accumulation of spinal fluid.

Basilio's father, a former dumpsite manager at the former US military facility, died of leukemia in 1998. "The doctors said he contracted leukemia from exposure to toxic chemicals," Basilio said.

Dayrit noted that studies, including one by the Weston International in 1997, have confirmed the contamination of shallow wells at Clark.

"What we fear is that the contaminants might penetrate deeper and also affect water supplied from deep wells by local water firms," Dayrit said, noting that ground water from Clark tends to flow northeast towards this town.

Iris' grandmother said that in Barangay Tabun, they got their water from shallow wells.

At the Mawaque health center, health workers said they have not encountered unusual ailments among patients, unlike at the Madapdap resettlement site where the PTFBC has reported the deaths at 99 former Clark evacuees since 1995.

Since most of the toxic waste "victims" are poor, the PTFBC has been raising funds for their medical needs. On May 30, it is sponsoring a benefit concert of a well-known tenor at the Movale Ballroom of Holiday Inn Clark.