Toxic waste claims two more lives

Two more people have died of toxic waste contamination in the former United States military bases of Clark and Subic in Central Luzon, bringing to 26 the number of victims from January to July alone.

This is according to the People's Task Force for Bases Cleanup (PTFBC) which has been closely monitoring the victims' health situation since 1996.

A non-government organisation, PTFBC started its drive for clean-up of Clark and Subic in 1989.
PTFBC officials said Ernesto Borja, a 46-year-old livestock farm worker, died of cancer of the kidney in Mabalacat town in the central Luzon province of Pampanga.

They stated that Borja is survived by 11 children, with the youngest Rowell, 7, afflicted with a congenital central nervous system disorder.

Rowell's mother died of breast cancer when he was only two years old.

Norma Diago, 55, also died recently after years of suffering from lung cancer. A member of an ethnic Aeta community in the village of Pastulan, Diago was among several hundreds who scrounge for junk inside a garbage dump in the former U.S. naval base of in Subic, Olongapo City.

The PTFBC said that Borja's and Diago's deaths meant an average of 3.71 deaths per month for the first seven months of this year brought about by toxic waste contamination in Subic and the former U.S. air base in Clark, Pampanga.

It noted that the Borjas had lived in Cabcom, an evacuation centre they shared with thousands of other families following the 1992 eruption of Mount Pinatubo.

It was in Cabcom that they ingested water found contaminated with arsenic, lead and other heavy metals, the PTFBC said.

It added that organic pollutants such as PCBs, DDT, Dieldrin and Aldrin were also found there. These pollutants are known carcinogens.