TED Case Studies

The U.S. Military's Legacy of Toxic Waste in Clark Air Base, Philippines




 

I. Identification

1. The Issue

Until 1991 when the Philippine senate voted to close down the bases, the United States had maintained a military presence in the Philippines since 1898. Clark Air Force Base was once the largest U.S. Military Base outside the continental United States and today it is the Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ) and is being developed by Clark Development Corporation (CDC), an executive agency of the Philippine government, to become a site of modern industrial estates, tourism and trade attractions and the future home of a state of the art Philippine International Airport. Despite all the ambitious plans for Clark, it is haunted by a toxic legacy left by the US military. Even though Clark has many incentives and competitive advantages that could make it a successful economic zone, years of U.S. military activity has left solvents, heavy metal, pesticides, polycholorinated bu-phenyls and petroleum products in the soil and groundwater, and would make businesses wary of investing in the area as well as make the locals skeptical on the possible effects of more industrial development on Clark's environment with the anticipated establishment of numerous industries and factories. For the United States, responsibility of cleaning up Clark legally passed on the Philippine government after the withdrawal and their standpoint today is to point the Philippines in the direction of private companies to help with the clean up. CDC in fact has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with The Civil Engineering Research Foundation's (CERF) Environmental Technology Evaluation Center (EvTEC) to cooperate and collaborate in the identifying and transferring of beneficial environment technology. Furthermore, the Clark International Airport corporation (CIACorp.) and the aviation industry giant The Boeing Company through its wholly-owned subsidiary McDonnel Doungals Corp have also signed a MOU to pave the way for the supplier companies for F/A-18s to explore investment opportunities in Clark as well as push for the possiblity of Clark servicing U.S. Military aircraft as well. Nevertheless, despite the partnership with EvTEC, the positive outcomes may not be sufficient to address the urgency of the toxic waste problem in Clark. Thus NGOs and the Philippine government are continuing their pressure on the United States to help fund the bulk of the clean-up. With Boeing Company as well as numerous American companies looking to invest in Clark, and with the Philippines pinning high hopes on Clark to boost the country's economy with the investments and jobs it can offer, the United States should admit the magnitude of the problem and assist as much as possible in all remedies. Besides being bound by international law and sense of justice, it is in the United State's best interest to take responsibilty for its contamination and uphold its environment and trade leadership in order to create a safe economic zone for the benefit of American and other multinational companies and for the Philippine economy to have access to the full advantages that Clark has in store.

 

2. Description

The United States has colonized the Philippines since 1898 when they took over from the Spaniards. Even when the Philippines gained her independence after World War II, the United States had maintained a strong military presence in the Philippines with Camp John Hay in Baguio City, Northern Luzon, Subic Bay Naval Base near Olongapo City, Northern Luzon and Clark Airforce Base near Angeles City, Northern Luzon. However in 1991, with nationalist fervor at a height due to the lobbying of ex-President Corazan C. Aquino and with the Senate opposition led by widely popular Joseph "Erap" Estrada, now the President of the Philippines, the Philippine Senate did not extend the lease of the bases. Predictions of the economic ruin was predicted with the closing of the bases especially since the bases had been second only to the Philippine government in the number of employees employed and all together, the bases had employed 68,000 Filipinos and contributed to about $28 million a day to the local economy. The American Secretary of Defense, Dick Cheney predicted that closing the bases would be "a real tragedy for the Philippines"1 .In June 1991, Mount Pinatubo erupted after 600 years of dormancy killing more than 800 people and burying miles and miles of cities and towns in the one of the most destructive eruptions ever. Mt. Pinatubo is only four miles to the west of Clark, so the U.S. Air base was buried under tons of ash and mud which made the Americans hurriedly hasten their departure. When the American flag came down in 1992, almost immediately, looters stripped Clark of everything from light fixtures, wiring, door handles, skillets to toilet seats.

*Part of Clark buried under flowing lahar

More pictures of Clark after Mt. Pinatubo

However, Clark was able to rise above this disaster when the Clark Development Corporation, an executive agency of the Philippine government was established to develop Clark into The Clark Special Economic Zone (CSEZ). At first PhP 2 billion (US$ 66.7 million) was spent cleaning up volcanic debris and making utilities functional. Today, aside from the development of the former airfields into another international airport in the Philippines and an P18.22 billion high speed cargo and passenger railway between Clark airport and Manila which was awarded to a Spanish firm, the CSEZ has been attracting more and more people and companies with its lucrative packaging as an economic zone. It has a strategic location within Central Luzon (the largest island in the Philippine archipelago) and is also easily accessible from the main economic hubs of the Asia-Pacific such as Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan and South Korea. In addition, the Philippines has added tax incentives, which include duty-free importation of equipment, unlimited purchase of consumer goods which are tax and duty-free and offers the availability of highly skilled, English-speaking workers, most of whom are former base workers and therefore are used to working with foreigners. Perhaps most importantly is that the CSEZ, having been the largest US air bases outside of the United States, already has the necessary facilities for aviation, industrial and commercial purposes as well as a power plant, telecommunications facilities and water supply2. As of April 1997, 189 establishments have registered with CDC which add up to almost P30 billion in committed investments within a span of five years. Most of the companies were either engaged in commercial or industrial projects although the tourism sector accounted for almost a third of the committed investments3. Furthermore, in a report submitted to President Fidel Ramos in October 1997, CDC President Romeo David reported that CDC had generated 37,442 jobs as of September 1997 which is more than the 20,000 that Clark Airbase employed4. However, underneath all the reports of investments and generated jobs was also the uncovering of the relics of the U.S. military as well as questions of the magnitude of toxic wastes in Clark that local NGOs and certain government officials kept bringing up.


There is no doubt that the United States Airforce, besides leaving an infrastructure that is essential in the conversion of Clark into an economic zone, also left tons of toxic wastes generated by the numerous military activities throughout the area. According to the Philippine government, the issue on toxic wastes in Clark arose from a report on the contamination of former US bases at home and overseas released by the US General Accounting Office in 1992. Former US Ambassador to the Philippines and Undersecretary of Defense, Frank Wisner had reported however that the US bases were cleaned before the US withdrawal. Still in 1993, while turning over documents enumerating the land use of Clark, the US emphasized that under the RP-US Military Bases Agreement, the US "has no legal obligation to restore the former bases to their original condition"5. The Pentagon documents given to the Philippines revealed that benzene and other toxic chemicals in soil and water around rice farmlands and irrigation streams were observed as a result of releases from the 42-mile pipeline connecting Clark and Subic6 and that contaminants such as Aldrin, Dieldrin, Petroleum hydrocarbons, Polycholorinated Hydrocarbongs (PCBs), lead, mercury and serveral different kinds of solvents including benzene, toluene lindande and hexachlorobenzene have all been identified at above safe environmental standards in the soil and groundwater on Clark as well as the other bases. Besides the US GAO and the US DOD reports, the World Health Organization and other recent environment baseline surveys conducted by U.S. Firms have confirmed these results. The Health for All survey which was conducted by the International Institute for the Concern of Public Health under Dr. Rosalie Bertell, was released in November 1998 and revealed that certain communities around Clark reported abnormally high and uneven levels of kidney, urinary, nervous and female system health problems7. In November 1997, local reporter wrote that 28 drums of chemicals and 29 pails of unknown chemicals were discovered after a chemical stench became unbearable to the residents of the nearby barangay. The nearest families to the site experienced various chest, stomach and head ailments and vomiting. Although painted over, the drums apparently still bore the color of military fatigue (the prominent color of containers in Clark) and had markings of "US Foam Liquid Concentrate"8. Besides chemical wastes, bombs littering the CSEZ pose more of an immediate threat especially with all the construction and development going on in the area. The bombs, which weigh from 50 to 250 pounds had been left by U.S. Air Force personnel at their ammunition dump in Clark when they pulled out of Clark. Almost all the bombs have been unearthed by developers inside the ecozone9 since most were buried under Mt. Pinatubo's ash fall and lahar (hot ash mixed with torrential typhoon waters). In light of this evidence, unless a movement to start up a massive cleaning up of Clark is done, the withdrawal of hundreds of investors from the CSEZ is very likely.

The United States maintains the stand that the responsibility of cleanup in Clark legally passed to the Philippines government after the U.S. withdrawal since there was no negotiated plan regarding the cleaning up any toxic wastes. Interestingly, the knowledge of the contamination came only after the report of the General Accounting Office and therefore no provisions could have been included in the RP-US treaty. The Pentagon's policy on toxic contamination has always been that the costs and risks of cleaning up toxic wastes discovered after bases have been turned over are imposed on the local government. Their hands off position was reiterated by Secretary of Defense William Cohen in a visit to the Philippines in August 1998 for the purpose of pushing for the Visiting Forces Agreement when he said, "We have indicated that there are some private sector initiatives that hopefully will be of benefit to the Philippine government. We would explore other ways which we can be helpful in terms of helping the people to deal with the issue...We left bases of considerable value to the Filipino people. We have made all information about the land use that we have available to the government and to the agencies." The United States has also been to be quite ambivalent of the issue and does not regard it as a serious problem. When President Ramos raised the issue of toxic cleanup in November 1994 at the APEC summit Jakarta, President Clinton had denied that there was any evidence of urgent environmental problems10. Furthermore, in email correspondence with David Noble, Chair of the InterAmerica Area Studies at the State Departmentan, who had worked on the base negotiations during the turnover and is now working on the problems of unexploded ordinance in Panama, said "Although I worked extensively on the Philippine base negotiations...I am, unfortunately, not an expert on toxic waste left behind by US forces in the Philippines...I was unaware that this was a serious problem"11. Until 1992, military bases had been exempt from federal and state environemnt laws, but even with the passage of the Federal Facility Compliance Act12, the EPA and state agencies can only investigate DOD's activities and fine them.

After President Ramos raised the matter with President Bill Clinton in the APEC Summit in 1994, Defense Secretary Renato de Villa wrote U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen in 1997 requesting that an RP-US joint task force on the bases clean-up be formed. Although President Clinton verbally committed the following year for the establishment of the U.S. counterpart, there has been no U.S. task force created. The Philippine Embassy in Washington, D.C. is continuing to pursue the issue and is also monitoring U.S. action in other former U.S. bases where toxic waste was found13. Because of the impasse that the United States and the Philippines are in, CDC has taken the step to sign a Memorandum of Understanding with the Civil Engineering Research Foundation's Environmental Technology Evaluation Center (EvTEC). The CERF-CDC MOU's purpose is to create international collaboration and cooperation between the two organizations, and to identify and transfer beneficial environmental technology into use in the sites managed by CDC14. In the concept paper drafted for the MOU, Clark was recognized as an ideal site for applying environmental technologies because of the environmental hazards remaining from U.S. military presence15. In an interview, Will Kirkskey, director of EvTEC, explained that the partnership sought to engage the private sector into testing environmental technologies in Clark in exchange for incentives such as a more lucrative tax package as well as perhaps leases or rights to the sites or land that a company had tested and been successful in. He also assured that technologies to be tested were not completely untried and by testing in Clark, successes could mean the cleaning up of Clark and the opportunity for companies to sell their technologies to other Asian countries16.

The CERF-CDC partnership is promising but its main critique is that it is not moving fast enough. The U.S. State Department has informed the Philippine government that they will encourage the U.S. private sector to get involved in clean-up activities through the CERF-CDC programs but nevertheless, the burden of financing the project and engaging technology companies into the project still slows down the cleaning up of toxic wastes. Thus, NGOs especially The People's Task Force for Bases Clean-Up and Nuclear Free Philippines Coalition continue to pressure the United State's government into taking responsibility for their toxic wastes. Just recently, Filipino-Americans Christina Leano and Amy Toledo of the People's Task Force were in Washington, D.C. from March 29 to April 2 to meet with the U.S. Congress, State Department and other NGOs to further their cause. In addition, Leano and Toledo toured 11 U.S. cities to advocate for solutions to base contaimnation as well as to promote letter and telephone call-in campaigns17. Because the United States is the most important trading and military ally that the Philippines has, the Philippines is virtually toothless in persuading the United States to comply. If concern for the injustice of denying the people of Clark their rights to environmental and human health is not enough of a reason for the United States to help clean up the bases, there is a great potential for Clark to be an aviation and industrial hubbub in the Asia Pacific Region and the United State's trade and economic interests could benefit from the further development of Clark.

 

3. Related Cases

Keywords:

 

4. Draft Author: Maria Cristina J. Esteron

Date: April 14, 1999

 

II. Legal Clusters

5. Discourse and Status: Disagreement and Allegation

Although the Philippine government has not resorted to International Law in an attempt to make the United States take responsibility for the toxic wastes, the People's Task Force for Bases Clean-Up has asserted that "the U.S. is bound by international law to remediate the toxic situation in the Philippines under the Polluter Must Pay principle and other "environmental health rights" sighted in the Rio Declaration of Environment and Development which was adopted by the United States during the 1992 Convention." The Polluter Must Pay principle is principle 16 of the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development. Unfortunately for the Philippines, military bases have been exempt from federal and state environmental laws and even with the passage of the Federal Facility Compliance Act, the EPA and state agencies can only investigate and fine them. The U.S. refusal to take responsibility for any clean-up in Clark is based on the clause in the 1988 Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) between the Philippines and the United States which states that, "The United States is not obligated to turn over the bases to the Philippines at the expiration of this Agreement or the earlier relinquishment of any bases in the condition in which they were at the time of their occupation."18 However the U.S. military have broken Philippine environmental laws on air and water which have been in place since the 1970s and on hazardous waste which was introduced into law in 1990.

 

6. Forum and Scope: Philippines and Bilateral

 

7. Decision Breadth: 2 (The Philippines and the United States)

Although the Philippines and the United States will be most affected by the case, any outcome could potentially effect the Asian and other foreign companies wanting to invest in the CSEZ.

 

8. Legal Standing:

International Law: The Rio Declaration on Environment and Development

International Treaty: The 1988 RP-US Memorandum of Agreement

National Law: The Philippines Toxic Substances & Hazardous & Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990 and The Philippines National Water & Air Pollution Control Commission Act

 

III. Geographic Clusters

 

9. Geographic Locations

Click on Angeles City for a map of Clark and its surrounding areas.

a. Geographic Domain: Asia

b. Geographic Site: South East Asia

c. Geographic Impact: Philippines

 

10. Sub-National Factors: No

 

11. Type of Habitat: Tropical Rainy Forest

 

IV. Trade Clusters

12. Type of Measure: Not Applicable

No trade or regulatory measure has been taken up agains the United States in order to pressure them into taking care of the toxic wastes mainly because the United States is an important military and trade partner. The Philippines is too dependent on the United States and issues to consider are the MOU with The Boeing Company and the recent signing of the Visiting Forces Agreement. The inaction of the United States can constitute as a barrier to the proper development of Clark's economic potential as a Special Economic Zone.

 

13. Direct v. Indirect Impacts: Indirect

The United States' hands-off policy towards toxic wastes found in former U.S. military bases has an indirect effect of hindering the development of the Clark Special Economic Zone.

 

14. Relation of Trade Measure to Environmental Impact

a. Directly Related to Product: No

b. Indirectly Related to Product: No

c. Not Related to Product: Yes

d. Related to Process: Yes

 

15. Trade Product Identification: None

 

16. Economic Data

Costs of Toxic Waste Clean-up:

According to the U.S. Embassy in Manila: $3 million in environmental clean-up already spend by removing hazardous waste, transformers with PCBs and munitions from bunkers and storage sites.

Depart of Defense Estimate: Clean up of Clark and Subic will cost only $40 million all together

General Accounting Office Estimate: Superfund proportions, $1 billion

Economic Data on Clark:

Amount of Investments in from 1993 to 1997: PhP 30 billion ($860 million)

Amount of Investments in 1998: PhP 7.3 billion ($200 million)

Jobs Generated since 1993: approximately 50,000

Source: Growth Corridor Philippines, January 1999, Clark Development Corp. Presidential Report 1997.

 

17. Impact of Trade Restriction:

Although there are no trade restrictions involved, the toxic waste situation in Clark and the unhealthy environment that it is creating is a worrisome problem that can deter further investments and the profitable use of Clark's facilities.

 

18. Industry Sector:

Non-Durable Manufacturing: Textiles and Apparel, Electronics, Gifts, Toys and Houseware

Services: Tourism

Others: Aviation related projects, Environment Technologies

 

19. Exporters and Importers:

Exports from Clark:

 

V. Environment Clusters

20. Environmental Problem Type: Waste

 

21. Name, Type, and Diversity of Species

Name: Many

Type:Many

Diversity: Many

IUCN Status: Vulnerable

The most immediate effect of toxic wastes in Clark is on the health of the inhabitants of the region. The toxic wastes seeps into the soil and water and effects the quality of drinking water as well as the air. In the study by Dr. Bertell for the Health for Survey, the high incidences of health problems were all related to problems from polluted water and air. Poor water quality was associated with all kidney and urinary tract problems, corrosive drinking water was related to respiratory problems, unusually tasting and odorous water was related to nervous system problems and dust was associated with kidney problems (dust is usually associated with respiratory problems). In other words, the study concluded was that there was something definitely wrong with the dust and water in Clark and its surrounding communities.

 

22. Resource Impact and Effect: High and Scale

 

23. Urgency and Lifetime:

Since the effects of toxic wastes on the people in Clark have already been noticed, studied and recorded, the urgency in resolving the issue is very high. If the issue is not resolved, the health of the whole of the Clark community as well as the surrounding areas will continue to be endangered.

 

24. Substitutes: Conservation and Clean-up Efforts

The health problems can easily be stopped by the clean-up of the wastes and with greater conservation and maintenance efforts.

VI. Other Factors

25. Culture: NO

 

26. Trans-Boundary Issues: YES

The U.S. military had control over the bases and bases were exempt from federal and state environmental laws until 1992 However, the toxic wastes they generated inevidently effected the Filipino workers in Clark as well as the environment of the surrounding communities.

27. Rights: Yes

With the United State's refusal to even at least offset the cost of the toxic waste clean-up and letting the Philippines, who does not have the financial or technical capacities to deal with the problem, bear the burden of what is an American created toxic legacy, the Filipino people are being blatantly being denied their right to environmental and human health.

 

28. Relevant Literature

1. Mydans, Seth, "Subic Bay, Minus U.S., Becomes Surprise Success," New York Times 23 Nov. 1996, late ed.: A1.

2. Clark Development Corporation, "The Clark Special Economic Zone," ARCOST Online, online, Internet, 8 Apr. 1999. http://www.arcost.com/clark.html

3. "PAF urged to remove bombs build at Clark," Sunstar 7 June 1997.

4. "Clark employs more people now then during American troops stay," Today 2 Oct. 1997

5. Philippine Embassy, "The Issue of Toxic Wastes at Former US Bases," Report to the President oft he Philippines Mar. 1999

6. "Waste Clean-up at Philippine Bases Unresolved," Environment News Service (ENS) 10 Aug. 1998, Envirolink, online, Internet, 4 Apr. 1999. http://www.lycos.com/envirolink/news/stories/3570.html.

7. The People's Task Force for Bases Clean-Up, "The Toxic Legacy of the U.S. Militry in the Philippines," Press Release, Mar. 1999

8. "Chemical Odor Sweeps Village Close to Clark," Philippine Daily Inquirer 21 Nov. 1997.

9. "PAF urged to remove bombs build at Clark," Sunstar 7 June 1997.

10. "Waste Clean-up at Philippine Bases Unresolved," Environment News Service (ENS) 10 Aug. 1998, Envirolink, online, Internet, 4 Apr. 1999. http://www.lycos.com/envirolink/news/stories/3570.html.

11. David Noble, email to the author, 6 Apr. 1999.

12. The Federal Facility Compliance Act of 1992, Pub. L. 102-386, 6 Oct. 1992. http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d102:HR02194:@@@D|TOM:/bss/d102query.html|

13. 5. Philippine Embassy, "The Issue of Toxic Wastes at Former US Bases," Report to the President oft he Philippines Mar. 1999

14. Civil Engineering Research Foundation, "CERF and Clark Development Corporation to Support Innovative Environmental Technologies," Press Release 16 Mar. 1998, CERF Online, online, Internet, 4 Apr. 1999. http://www.cerf.org/about/press/03_16_98.htm

15. Civil Engineering Research Foundation, "Innovative Environmental Technology for Former Overseas U.S. Military Nases," A Concept Paper 11 May 1998.

16. Will Kirskey, Personal Interview, 12 Apr. 1999.

17. Asia Pacific Center for Justice and Peace, "Philippine-American activists call for U.S. Base Clean-up Efforts," Press Release 18 Mar. 1999.

18. Luis H. Francia, "Bases Loaded. Pentagon Strikes Out at Subic and Clark," Village Voice 15 Jun. 1993.