It is particularly urgent that the US accepts its responsibility in light of the Visiting Forces Agreement, which in 1998 it has forged with the Philippines. The VFA paves the way for the return of US forces in the country and the resumption of military exercises. The VFA does not guarantee environmental protection, but no less than our own Department of Foreign Affairs declared that the chances of toxic contamination is remote. Yet the US defense department has admitted that nuclear vessels have occasionally leaked radioactive liquids. Military port visits and training exercises have environmental impacts.
War exercises harm forests, mountains, beaches, wetlands, and ultimately, people.
We cannot allow the further contamination of our land nor the continuous global environmental racism and injustice. Despite the absence of specific provisions in the 1951 US-RP Mutual Defense Treaty that obliges the US to clean up its toxic waste, relevant principles and agreement accepted by the US and the international committee as well as our own internal policies and law for environmental protection deem the US as morally responsible. Among these are the Stockholm Declaration on intergenerational equity, Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Rio Declaration. Towards that our appeal is for you to nudge your government from its indifference to the needs of our people. Call on your government to acknowledge and give information on the contamination so that the process of assessment and clean up would begin.