NEWSFLASH

ANOTHER CLARK TOXIC WASTE DEATH?

Mabalacat, Pampanga, May 22, 2000 - Another 10-year-old girl died of leukemia here recently, and her death is being blamed on the toxic waste left by US Air Force operations in the former Clark Air base.

Some 20,000 lahar-displaced families 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.

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

Another case is that of five-year-old Marlyn Galang who was reported to be dying of bone tuberculosis.

Jeepney driver Ariel Balagtas, 32, and his wife Ginger, 32, lived 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.

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, PTFBC claims.

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..

Also at Madapdap, four-year-old Syra Tolentino was diagnosed with congenital heart disease. Syra was conceived at the Cabcom evacuation center.

Another child at Madapdap, Abe Taruc, 5, was born with cerebral palsy at the evacuation center.

"We have uncovered only the tip of the iceberg," said PTFBC volunteer Mandy Rivera.

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