Green Alert: EDC polluting water source since 2001
BACOLOD CITY -- Green Alert Negros (GAN) revealed that then PNOC (now EDC) operation has been polluting the water source since 2001. This is in their old drilling site inside Mt. Kanlaon Natural Park.
"PNOC-EDC has been charged with this pollution and contamination case since 2001 and the provincial government and the DENR knows about this already but they didn't do anything about this," stressed Mark Cervantes of Green Alert.
In 2001, members of Green Alert Negros has an investigation in the site wherein they visited Pula River which at that time has been suspected to be contaminated or polluted by the effluence coming from PNOC operations.
Albert Lozada, a member of Green Alert who was present in the conduct of the investigation said that PNOC dumps its wastes in the creek during night time and when it rains heavily just to make sure that no one will see them doing it. The waste material looks murky and have a foul smell that once you inhaled it, it will give you a stomach ache, Lozada added.
Green Alert Negros members also interviewed one local villager and told them that one of his animals died after drinking the water in the contaminated Pula River.
GAN also said that they took water samples and sent it to Iloilo for testing but the results was negative. GAN suspects that PNOC used its influence to have the result negative. GAN also stressed that PNOC-EDC is using its influence eversince to advance its interests and hide its bad record.
"We don't understand what Gino De La Cruz of EDC is telling that we have to be objective about the issue. We have been very objective eversince. Our points are all scientific, legal and moral. There's is not. EDC has to stop hiding under the skirt of the Provincial Government, DENR, DOE, etc and stop manipulating communities. Let's face each other for a public debate," added Cervantes.