Palace hands off probe on toxic waste dumping by US Navy contractor
MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang would rely on the investigation by the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority and the Senate of the alleged dumping of hazardous waste on Subic Bay since a presidential body could not inquire into it, officials said Sunday.
Undersecretary Abigail Valte, President Benigno Aquino III’s deputy spokesperson, said the executive department would first await the results of the investigation by the SBMA and the Senate before acting on the alleged waste-dumping by US Navy contractor, Glenn Defense Marine Philippines.
“The SBMA is already conducting its own inquiry. And there will be a parallel investigation by the Senate. We’ll wait and see (how) the investigation will turn out,’’ she said in an interview over government-run dzRB.
Valte said the matter would not fall under the jurisdiction of the Presidential Commission on the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFACom), Glenn Defense being a third-party.
“From what we understand, the VFA does not yet apply because this particular entity Glenn Defense is a third party. This is a third-party corporation and doesn’t fall under the VFA,’’ she said.
VFACom monitors compliance with the VFA, an agreement on the treatment of American troops visiting the Philippines.
The reported dumping has prompted an investigation by the SBMA, whose board of directors is meeting Monday to discuss the results of an initial investigation.
Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago, former chair of the Senate foreign relations committee, has vowed to file a resolution seeking an inquiry into the waste dumping that she said could be a breach of the VFA. The US Navy has also begun its investigation, the US Embassy in Manila said.
SBMA records showed that wastes dumped by the tanker MT Glenn Guardian, owned by Glenn Defense, were collected from American ships that took part in joint military exercises in the country.
Following a “hazard’’ call, the SBMA Ecology Center personnel on Oct. 15 boarded the Glenn Guardian, then docked at the Naval Supply Depot, and found it was carrying some 189,500 liters of domestic waste and about 760 liters of bilge water (a combination of water, oil and grease).
All these were hauled from Emory Land, a US Navy ship.
The next day, a team from the Philippine Coast Guard and SBMA Ecology Center boarded Glenn Guardian and another vessel, MT Glenn Enterprise, to take water samples and see whether the liquid waste was safe to be dumped into the sea.
Edilberto Acedilla, captain of Glenn Guardian, admitted to the team that liquid wastes had been dumped at least 37 kilometers (20 nautical miles) from Subic Bay. Water samples taken from the vessels showed that the level toxicity of the liquid wastes exceeded the norm.
A permit was required for the dumping, and Glenn Defense failed to secure one, officials said.
