Childhoods of Pain

JULY - SEPTEMBER 2003
VOL. IX NO. 3

Looking for
past i articles?

discuss this article
in our e-forum

Thirteen years after the last U.S. troops left their bases in the Philippines, the fate of children who fell ill allegedly because of toxic-waste contamination caused by base operations remains uncertain.

photos by Jose Enrique Soriano

John Rafael David was two years old at the time of this photograph. His mother Susan was evacuated to what was then the Clark Air Force Base after the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in 1991 Susan said she and other families got their drinking water from a deep well inside the base. "The water had a funny smell and was oily on the surface."

PHOTOJOURNALIST Jose Enrique Soriano shot these pictures in October 2000. Most of the children whose faces appear on these pages were born in communities in or near Subic or Clark, the former U.S. military bases in Central Luzon, or had one or both parents working there. At least one of them is already dead. The rest are going through what remains of their childhood in constant discomfort and pain. Their lives as adults are bound to be not much different.

Gilbert Cardinosa, who was born inside the former air base at Clark, has juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

The PCIJ first reported on toxic wastes in the former U.S. military bases in November 1992, just when the last of the U.S. troops were pulling out of the country. The Center based its report on U.S. government documents, as well as on-site investigation by the PCIJ and environmental scientists. In Clark Air Base alone, the PCIJ team wrote, there were, among other poisonous trash, "more than 300 barrels of toxic chemicals, including acids and solvents…in an open field at the base supply yard. Many of the barrels were covered with rust and a few were leaking." The team also noted that in Clark, as well as in Subic Naval Base, asbestos and polychlorinated biphenyl or PCB, a known carcinogen, along with pesticides and insecticides that had been banned in the United States, had been used and stored improperly.

Micha Rose Pabalan was six years old when this photgraph was taken. Born in what used to be the Clark Air Force base, she is stricken with cerebral palsy.

The U.S. Embassy in Manila denied all these. The embassy's spokesman, Morton Smith, went as far as declaring Subic "an excellent example of enlightened environmental management" even though U.S. Navy reports showed that it disposed only 20 percent of its hazardous waste each year. The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) proved more sympathetic, with one investigator there even saying that Subic was a probable "horror story." Nevertheless, the GAO cited a 1988 amendment to the 1947 bases agreement that said the United States was not obliged to return the bases to the Philippines "in their original condition." Up to now, Washington remains firm in saying it has no legal obligation to clean up its former military bases in this country.

Romar Devillena died not long after this photograph was taken. He was then four years old. He was diagnosed with having leukemia when he was only age two. His father worked in the former US Subic Bay Naval Base in Zambales.

Last year, i magazine revisited Clark, after hearing that more and more women living in communities near or around it were having miscarriages. About 500 ex-residents of Clark had also been discovered to be suffering from diseases and physical abnormalities that some experts said were consistent with the effects of toxic-waste contamination.

Sheila Pineda (left) and Syva Tolentino (right), both four years old at the time of this photograph, underwent heart bypasses after being diagnosed with having congenital heart disease. Both were born in the former US air force base at Clark.

Girlie Gapi, 13 at the time of this photograph, suffers from cerebral palsy. Her mother Eulalia, then 34, says they were getting their drinking water inside what used to be the Subic Naval Base.

Several studies have indicated a link between the health problems of the former bases' residents, as well as those of the people in neighboring communities, and the toxic wastes in Clark and Subic. But some people believe nothing less than evidence of a direct connection can put enough moral pressure on the United States to finally take responsibility for its former military bases' toxic legacy. In the meantime, there can only be more pain ahead for the children in these photographs.

Micha Mesiano has cerebral palsy. She was three years old when this photograph was taken. Her mother Amy, then 40, worked in what used to be the Subic Naval Base's Naval Magazine, now a garments factory. Her father Wilfredo was employed in the base's Ship Repair Facility as an electrician with "no protection and was exposed to asbestos."

Ariel Zamora has skin disease. Local doctors could not explain why more than half of his body and that of his sister's are covered with scabs. The boy, who was 16 when this picture was taken, used to live with his family on a garbage dumpsite at Clark.