Mature Reasoning
There’s the Rub
Toxic
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:20 am | Monday, November 26th, 2012
I’m glad Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Walden Bello have introduced resolutions calling for the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in the wake of Glenn Defense Marine Asia’s dumping of toxic waste on the waters of Subic Bay. It’s way past due.
On the face of it, the connection between the two is merely tangential. After being accused of dumping untreated waste on the waters off the Bay, Glenn Defense, a US Navy contractor, said it could not be investigated, or castigated, by Philippine authorities as it fell under the umbrella of the VFA. And in any case, as retired admiral Mateo Mayuga, who has become their virtual spokesperson, argued: one, the waste wasn’t toxic at all, it had been pretreated before being unloaded; two, it was unloaded well beyond Philippine waters; and three, it had a permit to unload.
Not so, SBMA authorities protested, and the Senate subsequently confirmed. One, the unloading in fact happened well within Philippine territory. Rear Admiral Luis Tuason Jr., Coast Guard officer in charge, pointed out that the dumping took place within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), extending 370 kilometers, or 200 nautical miles, from the coast. Two, the unloaded waste was in fact toxic, the Glenn vessel having no treatment facilities on board, and the dumped waste proving on examination to have exceeded safety levels, threatening marine life. Three, Glenn Defense in fact never applied for a permit from the Coast Guard which, Tuason said, was mandatory for this.
“The VFA has nothing to do with it,” said Loren Legarda, who has led the investigation and castigation of Glenn Defense in the Senate. Glenn Defense is a civilian company that made the sole and reckless decision to poison another country’s waters and for that needs to be made to pay, preferably through its teeth.
I applaud all this, and am squarely behind the
Toxic
By Conrado de Quiros
Philippine Daily Inquirer
12:20 am | Monday, November 26th, 2012
I’m glad Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Walden Bello have introduced resolutions calling for the scrapping of the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) in the wake of Glenn Defense Marine Asia’s dumping of toxic waste on the waters of Subic Bay. It’s way past due.
On the face of it, the connection between the two is merely tangential. After being accused of dumping untreated waste on the waters off the Bay, Glenn Defense, a US Navy contractor, said it could not be investigated, or castigated, by Philippine authorities as it fell under the umbrella of the VFA. And in any case, as retired admiral Mateo Mayuga, who has become their virtual spokesperson, argued: one, the waste wasn’t toxic at all, it had been pretreated before being unloaded; two, it was unloaded well beyond Philippine waters; and three, it had a permit to unload.
Not so, SBMA authorities protested, and the Senate subsequently confirmed. One, the unloading in fact happened well within Philippine territory. Rear Admiral Luis Tuason Jr., Coast Guard officer in charge, pointed out that the dumping took place within the country’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ), extending 370 kilometers, or 200 nautical miles, from the coast. Two, the unloaded waste was in fact toxic, the Glenn vessel having no treatment facilities on board, and the dumped waste proving on examination to have exceeded safety levels, threatening marine life. Three, Glenn Defense in fact never applied for a permit from the Coast Guard which, Tuason said, was mandatory for this.
“The VFA has nothing to do with it,” said Loren Legarda, who has led the investigation and castigation of Glenn Defense in the Senate. Glenn Defense is a civilian company that made the sole and reckless decision to poison another country’s waters and for that needs to be made to pay, preferably through its teeth.
I applaud all this, and am squarely behind the