US solon urges US government to clean up Subic, Clark

ANGELES CITY — US Rep. Robert Underwood (Guam) has asked the US congress to amend the Fiscal Year 2002 Foreign Relations Authorization Act or House Resolution 1646 to be more specific on US response to the toxic waste problem in the Philippines, particularly at the former US Subic naval base and the Clark US Air Force base.

An update sent to the local media by the Washington-based Filipino-American Coalition for Environmental Solutions (FACES) said that Underwood’s proposed amendment has already reached the US Senate.

FACES quoted Underwood as telling the US Congress that "both our nations share a profound concern for the quality of the environment, and the US has a moral obligation to the Philippines to cooperate in ameliorating this environmental degradation."

Underwood, FACES said, wants more specifics on the US-RP joint statement on bilateral cooperation on environmental and public health which was forced during the visit of former President Joseph Estrada to Washington in 1998. The agreement, however, was broad and did not mention the former US military bases in the Philippines.

FACES also said that Sen. Loren Legarda described as "critical" the toxic waste contamination at Clark and Subic when she was named honoree during the World Environment Day hosted by the United Nations Environment Program in Toriño, Italy last June 5.

"It is our hope that one day the US Congress will respond to our plight. When that time comes, we may regain our trust in the fairness and in the sense of responsibility of the only super power left on this planet," Legarda told the UN gathering.

Underwood was recently in Angeles City where he met with alleged toxic waste victim Abe Taruc, 5, who has been suffering from cerebral palsy since birth. Abe’s mother Elvira believes that her son is a victim of toxic waste from water she drank from wells at a former evacuation center for victims of Mt. Pinatubo near Clark’s gate at Mabalacat, which was a former motorpool of the US Air Force.

The People’s Task Force on Bases Cleanup (PTFBC) has monitored no less than 100 mysterious deaths among folk who had lived at the evacuation center since the eruption of Mt. Pinatubo in 1991.