There is no evidence that any waste, toxic or not was actually dumped inside Subic Bay, in fact the harbor master says it was outside the bay but whether it was treated correctly or not is still unresolved and probably never will be.
There is certainly no evidence that anything toxic ever
existed, but for Subic Bay stakeholders we want to be sure nothing was released
inside the bay toxic or not and nothing will be dumped in future regardless of whether
it’s from a Navy ship or any other type of ship. If you observe the Glenn
Defense Marine ships on the live map ( http://marinetraffic.com
) you can see that they do this work every day for many ships, mostly in Manila
not Subic Bay, calling it a US Navy problem is obfuscation. Someone either tried
to gain political or commercial gain from spinning the story as “US contractor
dumps toxic waste”.
As I am writing this piece, I can see the Glenn Enterprise
at the Manila Port next to a Cambodian freighter and this is the way it is
every day, this has NOTHING to do with
the US government.
Samples taken from the Glenn Defense boat where held
overnight by the company’s biggest competitor making any form of prosecution based
on those samples impossible anyway but the issue will have placed SBMA on their toes so we can hope that this is never be an issue again. Probably the worst
thing Glenn Defense Marine can be charged with is for not having a coast guard permit, hardly an international incident!
It astonishes us that radical groups want to spin this into
anti American propaganda, let’s face it if a garbage truck that is servicing the Philippine
embassy in Hong Kong (as well as 500 local businesses) dumped its waste in a
nearby park is it the fault of Philippine foreign policy or the ignorant
failing of a local contractor? Should the HK government place sanctions on the
Philippine government for the actions of the Chinese dump truck driver? It
really is TRASH talk.
The people of Subic Bay had to go through all this VFA propaganda
nonsense once before during the “Subic Rape Case” which all boiled down to not
really happening in the first place yet we had to painfully live through the
minority agendas spinning a spat between two teenagers to be something that it
was not. Didn’t the anti VFA lobby get enough egg on their face that time? They
were so convinced that a rape occurred and that the US was to blame, well the
stakeholders of Subic Bay are sick of being your pawns. Stick to your issues
and don’t involve us because we have a coal power plant to stop and you’re not
helping us with our agenda, are you?
If there is good reason to cancel the VFA make your case
based on its own merits, we agree that US foreign policy leaves a lot
to be desired, but trying to drag Subic Bay into that agenda because a local contractor
dumped some sewerage is not debating the issue. If the VFA is wrong prove it
wrong for LEGITIMATE REASONS. It seems the anti-American, anti-VFA lobby doesn’t
have any legitimate claims or they would stop making stuff up.
