GREENPEACE DELIVERS HAZARDOUS MILITARY WASTE TO US EMBASSY - TWENTY-SIX ARRESTED

3 March 2000

MANILA/AMSTERDAM -- Twenty-six Greenpeace activists were arrested today in Manila after they delivered a container filled with poisonous industrial chemical waste (PCBs) to the US Embassy collected in residential areas near Clark Air Base. The activists demanded the United States to clean up contamination at its former military bases in the Philippines. After being carted off to the police station, the activists were soon released without charge.

"We were delivering this toxic cargo back to its rightful owner. The US government should take immediate custody of these hazardous materials and accept responsibility to clean-up the contamination in Clark and Subic," said Von Hernandez, Greenpeace Toxics campaigner in the Philippines.

Using a forklift truck driven by the Captain of the Rainbow Warrior, Peter Willcox, the environmental group delivered a 3 by 2 metre shipping container of contaminated waste and pieces of equipment collected from near the Clark air base earlier this week. The truck carrying the container was later captured by the police and Willcox was charged with driving without a full Philippine forklift truck license.

A container labeled "Danger, Toxic – Property of the United States" held some 40 litres of liquid PCB (polychlorinated biphenyls), contaminated soil in accident proof receptacles and 12 pieces of disassembled PCB-leaking transformer wrapped in plastic. The waste was packed fufilling proper hazardous materials handling and transport requirements.

"This is not a symbolic cargo, this is the real stuff. The material has been lying around in communities surrounding Clark, creating problems for at least the last five years. We are reminding the US government of its moral duty and obligation to clean up the mess it’s military left behind in the Philippines," said Willcox.

Greenpeace believes this waste load represents just the tip of the toxic iceberg at Clark and Subic Bay. The US military withdrew from the Philippines in 1992 leaving their bases in their present state. The local communities surrounding these bases have for many years suffered from mysterious deaths and health complaints including cancer, nervous system disorders, and reproductive problems.

Greenpeace called on the Philippine President Joseph Estrada to demand a clear commitment from President Bill Clinton that the US would clean-up the former bases and compensate the victims of its toxic legacy in the Philippines when the presidents meet in April in Washington.

"The United States has committed to cleaning up contamination caused by its bases in rich countries in Europe and Japan but has walked out on the Philippines. This is a clear double standard and a grave environmental injustice," stressed Hernandez.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

- Von Hernandez, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner in the Philippines, Tel: +63-917-5263050;
- Francis de la Cruz, Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner in the Philippines, Tel: +63-919-5560682;
- Jack Weinberg, Greenpeace advisor, +63-918-9038687;
- Media liaison Athena Ronquillo-Ballesteros, Tel: +63-917-813156;
- Teresa Merilainen, Greenpeace International, Press Officer Tel: +31-625 031001.

Footage available on request. Pictures will be available from Greenpeace's picture desk website: www.greenpeace.org/library/picturedesk.html

Follow Greenpeace's Toxic Free Asia Tour on the web: www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/toxfreeasia/

PCBs are persistent toxic chemicals. Once released into the environment, they can stay around for many years and ultimately contaminate not just the local environment but the whole globe. PCBs have been short listed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) as one of the 12 Persistent Organic Pollutants slated for action under a global treaty presently being negotiated by over 100 governments. The next negotiating meeting on this treaty begins on March 20 in Bonn Germany. It will address, among other issues, commitments to provide technical and financial assistance to countries that otherwise would not have the capacity to eliminate these persistent poisons.

Greenpeace’s flagship the Rainbow Warrior is in the Philippines until the 8th of March on the third leg of its Toxic Free Asia Tour. The tour includes India, Thailand, Philippines, Hong Kong and Japan.