A US Navy contractor violated Philippine
environmental laws by dumping toxic waste into Subic Bay in October, Senate
investigators found Wednesday. The contractor, Glenn Defense Marine
Philippines Inc., was also found to have no clearance from the Philippine
government to dispose of ship waste in the sea and no equipment to determine
whether the waste it was landing was harmful
to marine life. In a joint hearing of the Senate
committees on foreign relations and environment and natural resources, Sen.
Loren Legarda said Glenn Defense clearly broke Philippine laws on proper waste
disposal regardless of claims by the company’s CEO, retired Vice Adm. Mateo
Mayuga, that a Philippine Daily Inquirer report on the dumping of toxic waste
into Subic Bay was “inaccurate or false.” Mayuga told a news conference in Manila
recently that waste removed by Glenn Defense from US Navy ships docked at Subic
was pretreated and disposed of in waters outside Philippine territory. But the US Navy, which is investigating
Glenn Defense, denied Mayuga’s statement, saying it had no waste treatment
equipment aboard its ships. That meant the wastewater Glenn Defense’s
tanker MT Glenn Guardian removed from a US Navy vessel and dumped into waters 37
kilometers off Subic on Oct. 15 was hazardous.
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