Fishkill in Pampanga; pollution blamed

APALIT, Pampanga — Hundreds of fishermen in this town and neighboring Masantol are going hungry after observing "fishkill" for weeks now in the unusually dark waters of the Pampanga river.

Provincial board member Nestor Tolentino said the river has been yielding almost nothing for small fisherfolk for at least two weeks now since the water discoloration was noted.

He said that fishermen have blamed the Far Eastern Alcohol Corp. (Feaco) plant here for the water pollution.

Reacting to an appeal from Rep. Juan Miguel Bondoc (3rd Pampanga district), regional director Efren Sibbaluca of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) instructed last Friday the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to get samples of discharges from the plant and find out whether the effluents conform with government standards.

But Masantol Vice Mayor Marcelo Lacap said that the firm has secret underwater pipes that it uses to discharge highly polluted wastes.

In a letter to Gov. Lito Lapid, Jesus Velasquez, president of the Masantol Association of Barangay Chairmen, said that "the monstrous problem that stalks us is caused by the operation of the alcohol fermentation plant whose toxic wastes are dumped into the Pampanga river in sheer abandon."

In 1998, the DENR permanently closed a bigger alcohol fermentation firm beside Feaco, after folk from wide areas in Pampanga and even Bulacan blamed it for massive pollution of the Pampanga river.

Feaco which is only about one-third the size of the shut down plant, installed more anti-pollution facilities as pollution controversies mounted. — Ding Cervantes