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AS
Congress resumes deliberations on the proposed
P1.4-trillion national government budget for 2009, the
EcoWaste Coalition and Freedom from Debt Coalition
renewed their “Stop Toxic Debt [STD]” campaign, starting
with the useless medical waste incinerators that were
acquired under questionable circumstances more than a
decade ago.
According to leaders of the two groups, the Philippines
could get its children out of waste dumps and into
schools with the almost P100 million that would be saved
if Congress denies the budget allocation to pay what
they describe as the country’s illegitimate debt.
To put
their message across, STD partners from various
community and environmental groups assembled in front of
the Philippine Heart Center and unveiled a huge banner
calling for “Zero Budget for Incinerators.”
Youth
members of the Malayang Sining Community Theater (Mascomthea)
brightened the mass action as they mimed and strutted
with brightly painted faces bearing the word “zero.”
“The
ongoing budget deliberations offer lawmakers the chance
to correct a toxic blunder that saw polluting
incinerators being shipped and dumped into the
Philippines, adding to our nation’s pollution and debt
woes,” Manny Calonzo of the EcoWaste Coalition and the
Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (Gaia)
said.
Calonzo
proposed to strike out the incinerator-loan repayment
and use the money to support alternative livelihood for
adults and kids who scour the dumps and bins for
recyclables and even food.
There
are some 150,000 scavengers in Metro Manila, including
children who should be in schools.
A 2004
study by the EcoWaste Coalition and Gaia shows that
child scavengers are most vulnerable to harm from
repeated exposure to toxic chemicals and occupational
health risks.
Money
being spent on junk, instead of helping meet the
essential needs of Filipinos is despicable, Calonzo
said.
“There
is just no way that this immoral and anomalous deal can
be justified. We urge the Philippine and Austrian
governments to do the right thing and revoke this
unconscionable wasting of resources,” Von Hernandez of
Greenpeace-Southeast Asia, who first exposed the
anomalous transaction for the purchase of the medical
waste incinerators, said.
The
P503.65-million “Austria Medical Waste Project” loan
agreement between the governments of Austria and the
Philippines was signed in 1996 during the administration
of then President Fidel Ramos, “to improve the sanitary
situation in hospitals.”
The
project included the shipment and installation of
medical waste incinerators and disinfection units for 26
government hospitals. Subsequent testing found these
incinerators extremely polluting and exceeding national
as well as international standards for major pollutants
such as dioxin, the most notorious byproduct of waste
incineration.
The
incinerators were later decommissioned in 2003 with the
mandated phase out of waste incinerators for replacement
with environmentally-sound and safe non-burn
technologies under the Clean Air Act. A report released
in 2007 by the EcoWaste Coalition and Health Care
Without Harm confirms that recipient hospitals have
either decommissioned or dismantled their incinerators.
The loan
financed by the Bank Austria was to be paid in 24
semi-annual payments. To date, the Philippines has paid
over $14-million for the principal amortization and
interest payment of 4 percent per annum. |
