Another Clark toxic waste 'victim' dies; more kids ill

MABALACAT, Pampanga - The remaining skepticism on whether toxic wastes at Clark Field are responsible for unusual illnesses among local folk seems to be vanishing as another 10-year-old girl died of leukemia here recently.

The death of Kathleen Lavaria in Barangay Dolores here last May 10 has heightened fears among 20,000 lahar-displaced families who had stayed at an evacuation center at the former US Clark Air Force Base here after the 1991 eruption of Mt. Pinatubo.

Water from shallow wells at the evacuation center at the former site of the Clark Air Base Command (Cabcom) was believed contaminated with toxic wastes allegedly left by the Americans.

In September 1991, a US Department of Defense document titled "Environmental Review of Drawdown Activities at Clark Air Base" identified five contaminated sites and eight potentially contaminated sites, including the Cabcom area.

Most of the toxic waste "victims" newly documented by the People's Task Force for Bases Clean-up (PTFBC) are children of lahar-displaced poor families.

Last Feb. 25, Crizel Jane Valencia, 6, also died of leukemia. Dubbed by media as "toxic waste warrior," she was conceived at the Cabcom evacuation center.

Kathleen's sister, Zaidee, 22, said Kathleen stayed at Cabcom from 1992 to 1994. She started to get weak since then, until Dr. Jane Stewart, a pediatrician who also had followed up Crizel's case, diagnosed her with acute leukemia last March 22.

Told that her daughter's case was terminal, Kathleen's father Pepito shunned chemotherapy so as not to prolong her suffering. Still, her family did more than they could afford by providing Kathleen's room with air-conditioning at the Camachiles resettlement site here.

Another case is that of five-year-old Marlyn Galang who was reported to be dying of bone tuberculosis. The PTFBC is now at a loss on how to reach her. Pushed further to the pit of poverty by her illness, Marlyn's family had sold their housing unit at the Mawake resettlement.

Jeepney driver Ariel Balagtas, 32, and his wife Ginger, 32, are on the verge of desperation. Since living at Cabcom from 1992 to 1994, two of their four children have not been well; nine-year-old Yvez has cerebral palsy, while two-year-old Regine has congenital heart disease.

PTFBC nurse Nerissa Agustin noted that while Regina was born years after the family had moved out of the Cabcom area, some toxic wastes which the Weston International study detected at Clark in 1997 are known to be "bio-accumulative" in body fats and passed on to infants through breast-feeding.

Agustin also noted that Barangay Dolores, where Kathleen's family lives, is located at the periphery of Clark, near an area believed used by the US Air Force as landfill.

At the Madapdap resettlement, also in this town, the PTFBC has been monitoring 200 families who had stayed at the Cabcom evacuation center. There has been at least 98 deaths, including Crizel's, among these families.

Ryan Lopez, 17, is one of the growing number of youths afflicted with tuberculosis of the liver at the Madapdap resettlement site.

"I used to drink water from shallow wells at Cabcom," said Ryan, who looks diminutive for his age.

His mother, Remedios, 40, said that Ryan seemed to be reacting favorably to medication, but had stopped taking the medicine, called Myrin, for lack of money. Her husband, Honorio, 41, is a part-time laborer.

Also at Madapdap, four-year-old Syra Tolentino is atrophying (decreasing in size or wasting away of a bodily part or tissue). Her mother Yolanda, 44, said Syra was diagnosed with congenital heart disease.

Syra was conceived at the Cabcom evacuation center. "She had the size of a family-size softdrink bottle when she was born," her mother said. She has not undergone further treatment since her diagnosis for lack of money.

Another child at Madapdap, Abe Taruc, 5, needs regular doses of red wine as panacea for his frequent attacks of paralysis. He was also conceived and born with cerebral palsy at the evacuation center.

"We have uncovered only the tip of the iceberg," said PTFBC volunteer Mandy Rivera, as he pitifully examined Roel Borja, 5, in a visit at Madapdap yesterday.

Roel was also born with cerebral palsy at Cabcom. His mother, Eleonor, died of breast cancer in 1999, while his father has a kidney ailment.

"Most of the adult victims prefer to face death at their resettlement homes than be a burden to their poor families," Rivera said.

So far, only a few have responded to help some of the families. Among those who have given financial assistance were Senators Sergio Osmeña, Loren Legarda and Robert Jaworski and Mayor Lilia Pineda of Lubao, Pampanga.

Crizel's mother Dina said there were times when her daughter's hospital bills reached P400,000 a month.

Jaworski and Osmeña financed the bypass operation of Sheila Pineda, 3, who was born with congenital heart disease at Cabcom. Her operation last March 17 was successful and she has, for the first time, assumed normal life at the Madapdap neighborhood.

"But there are more we have to help," Agustin said. She cited the case of one-year-old Joren Rodriguez who was born with brain tumor. His mother had breastfed him. But the Rodriguezes had left the Madapdap resettlement site, too.