US refuses to remove toxic wastes
By Oliver Teves
MANILA, Philippines: The US has informed the Philippines it is not legally
obliged to clean up toxic wastes left at its former military bases in the
Philippines, Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon said Thursday.
Siazon said U.S. State Secretary Madeleine Albright wrote saying the U.S.
government would only support the establishment of a team to deal with
general environmental problems in the Philippines.
Filipino environmentalists have demanded that the US pay for the clean up of
the toxic wastes, which have contaminated water sources and the soil in
several areas of the former U.S. naval base at Subic Bay and the former
Clark Air Base north of Manila.
Several ailments, including the death of a child from leukemia, have been
blamed by activists on toxic contamination of the former bases.
Stanley Roth, U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific
Affairs, who is currently visiting Manila, said toxic contamination is not a
legal issue.
"The question is how can one help to address some of the lingering problems
and there, I believe, the key is to talk about this not as a base issue, not
as a legal issue but rather as an environmental issue," he told reporters
after a meeting with President Joseph Estrada.
Ernesto Maceda, the Philippines' ambassador to Washington, said the toxic
wastes are a "money issue."
He said the clean up of former U.S. bases in the Philippines would require
funds to be appropriated by the U.S. Congress, which also would have to
allocate money for the clean up of dozens of other former U.S. military
bases throughout the world.
"They cannot legislate funds for the Philippines alone. They will have to
legislate for all the other countries, and I think it will be in the tens of
billions dollars ... for the worldwide cleanup," Maceda said in an interview
over ABS-CBN News Channel.
The eruption of Mount Pinatubo volcano in June 1991 forced the Americans to
abandon Clark. In November the following year, U.S. forces left Subic after
the Philippine Senate voted not to extend the U.S. lease on the facility,
ending nearly a century of heavy U.S. military presence in country.
Issues relating to the U.S. bases remain highly sensitive in this former
American colony.(AP)
For reprint rights: Times Syndication Service
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