TRULY INACCURATE was the presentation in media of the report of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) regional office on the Porac piggeries.
The EMB took to task the Porac anti-pollution task force – which released the story – for saying that six of the 12 piggeries inspected were found to have failed anti-pollution standards.
In the press release, our good friend Rodgie Pangilinan, chair of the Porac anti-pollution task force stated that: “Of the six erring farms, four had ‘no waste water discharge’ while the other two were noted to have pending cases before the Pollution Adjudication Board.”
Wrong. Now cried the EMB. Not six, but only one piggery farm failed in the series of tests the EMB conducted in January-February this year.
“We want to put on record that the task force had requested us to conduct the inspection. The EMB was put on a bad light when the task force head implied that we had conducted the tests on our own and gave an incomplete report without the names of the supposed violators.” So said Lisa Dimaliwat, chief of the EMB planning, programming, MIS and statistical division, in a news report in this paper yesterday.
The erring piggery was identified as Marson Hog Farm in Barangay Sta. Cruz which “exceeded and failed” BOD standards, “having 170 mg/L. The standard is set at 120 mg/L.” Whatever that means.
Furthered the report : “Firm has pending water pollution case with the PAB under its former name Happy Valley Hog Farm, Inc., with PAB Case No. 03-00069-88.”
Clear here, it was not only the press release of the task force that could be deemed inaccurate. Even more sorely wanting in accuracy is the very inspection conducted by the EMB.
It is air pollution primarily that the people of Barangays Sta. Cruz and Manibaug-Pasig as well as those in the adjacent areas of Angeles City are complaining about and protesting against. To test the waters solely and forego with the air is well off-tangent for the EMB.
But EMB has a stock answer for this: The office could “only make a report or findings on wastewater. It is up to the local government units to handle the complaints against foul smell emitted by the piggeries…The odor test was for determination by the LGU sanitary unit.”
“The problem on foul smell has been there for many years but we are limited to testing the wastewater discharge of piggeries.” Thus Dimaliwat doing a Pilate. With a pa-consuelo de bobo of “urging the Porac officials to make an inventory of all piggeries – big and small – as a first step in finding a solution to the problem.”
Tailor-fit was that statement of Dimaliwat with the politically pa-pogi points Pangilinan infused in his press release: “Regardless of the six piggeries which were found to be complying with anti-pollution standards, his task force has decided to have all the 12 piggeries relocated anyway.”
Pangilinan added that his task force is supporting the proposal at the sangguniang bayan to reclassify Barangays Sta. Cruz and Manibaug-Paralaya to “Class 1 residential area, based on a new comprehensive land use plan.” And has endorsed the initiative of Councilor Ludi Muli to have “Barangay Mitla, the proposed piggery relocation site, declared as livestock zone where a central bio digester will be constructed for all the piggeries.”
Even the supreme optimist would not see the slightest ray of hope for a solution to the stinking problem of the Porac piggeries. The EMB findings only added more stench to the already nauseatingly smelly issue.
Perhaps only the spawning of some swine flu virus here could move government to come up with a definitive solution to the problem.
Far fetched? As the Influenza A (H1N1) virus did not come from pigs at all? Don’t be so smug now. I am no alarmist but read these excerpts from Biosurveillance, Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events, April 24, 2009.
On April 6, 2009 local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.
They reported, “Sources characterized the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.’ What they later say is ‘strange’ is not the form of the illness but the time of year as most flu cases occur in Mexico in the period October to February.
The report went on to note, ‘Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were “isolated” and “not related” to each other.’
Then, most revealingly, the aspect of the story which has been largely ignored by major media, they reported, ‘Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms….
…It has been widely documented and subject of US Congressional reports that large-scale indoor animal production facilities such as that of Granjos Carroll are notorious breeding grounds for toxic pathogens…
…application of ‘untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters…
…That is where the real investigation ought to begin, with the health and sanitary dangers of the industrial factory pig farms like the one at Perote in Veracruz. The media spread of panic-mongering reports of every person in the world who happens to contract ‘symptoms’ which vaguely resemble flu or even Swine Flu and the statements to date of authorities such as WHO or CDC are far from conducive to a rational scientific investigation. .
Pigs have nothing to do with this misnomered swine flu?
Think again.
The EMB took to task the Porac anti-pollution task force – which released the story – for saying that six of the 12 piggeries inspected were found to have failed anti-pollution standards.
In the press release, our good friend Rodgie Pangilinan, chair of the Porac anti-pollution task force stated that: “Of the six erring farms, four had ‘no waste water discharge’ while the other two were noted to have pending cases before the Pollution Adjudication Board.”
Wrong. Now cried the EMB. Not six, but only one piggery farm failed in the series of tests the EMB conducted in January-February this year.
“We want to put on record that the task force had requested us to conduct the inspection. The EMB was put on a bad light when the task force head implied that we had conducted the tests on our own and gave an incomplete report without the names of the supposed violators.” So said Lisa Dimaliwat, chief of the EMB planning, programming, MIS and statistical division, in a news report in this paper yesterday.
The erring piggery was identified as Marson Hog Farm in Barangay Sta. Cruz which “exceeded and failed” BOD standards, “having 170 mg/L. The standard is set at 120 mg/L.” Whatever that means.
Furthered the report : “Firm has pending water pollution case with the PAB under its former name Happy Valley Hog Farm, Inc., with PAB Case No. 03-00069-88.”
Clear here, it was not only the press release of the task force that could be deemed inaccurate. Even more sorely wanting in accuracy is the very inspection conducted by the EMB.
It is air pollution primarily that the people of Barangays Sta. Cruz and Manibaug-Pasig as well as those in the adjacent areas of Angeles City are complaining about and protesting against. To test the waters solely and forego with the air is well off-tangent for the EMB.
But EMB has a stock answer for this: The office could “only make a report or findings on wastewater. It is up to the local government units to handle the complaints against foul smell emitted by the piggeries…The odor test was for determination by the LGU sanitary unit.”
“The problem on foul smell has been there for many years but we are limited to testing the wastewater discharge of piggeries.” Thus Dimaliwat doing a Pilate. With a pa-consuelo de bobo of “urging the Porac officials to make an inventory of all piggeries – big and small – as a first step in finding a solution to the problem.”
Tailor-fit was that statement of Dimaliwat with the politically pa-pogi points Pangilinan infused in his press release: “Regardless of the six piggeries which were found to be complying with anti-pollution standards, his task force has decided to have all the 12 piggeries relocated anyway.”
Pangilinan added that his task force is supporting the proposal at the sangguniang bayan to reclassify Barangays Sta. Cruz and Manibaug-Paralaya to “Class 1 residential area, based on a new comprehensive land use plan.” And has endorsed the initiative of Councilor Ludi Muli to have “Barangay Mitla, the proposed piggery relocation site, declared as livestock zone where a central bio digester will be constructed for all the piggeries.”
Even the supreme optimist would not see the slightest ray of hope for a solution to the stinking problem of the Porac piggeries. The EMB findings only added more stench to the already nauseatingly smelly issue.
Perhaps only the spawning of some swine flu virus here could move government to come up with a definitive solution to the problem.
Far fetched? As the Influenza A (H1N1) virus did not come from pigs at all? Don’t be so smug now. I am no alarmist but read these excerpts from Biosurveillance, Swine Flu in Mexico- Timeline of Events, April 24, 2009.
On April 6, 2009 local health officials declared a health alert due to a respiratory disease outbreak in La Gloria, Perote Municipality, Veracruz State, Mexico.
They reported, “Sources characterized the event as a ‘strange’ outbreak of acute respiratory infection, which led to bronchial pneumonia in some pediatric cases. According to a local resident, symptoms included fever, severe cough, and large amounts of phlegm. Health officials recorded 400 cases that sought medical treatment in the last week in La Gloria, which has a population of 3,000; officials indicated that 60% of the town’s population (approximately 1,800 cases) has been affected. No precise timeframe was provided, but sources reported that a local official had been seeking health assistance for the town since February.’ What they later say is ‘strange’ is not the form of the illness but the time of year as most flu cases occur in Mexico in the period October to February.
The report went on to note, ‘Residents claimed that three pediatric cases, all under two years of age, died from the outbreak. However, health officials stated that there was no direct link between the pediatric deaths and the outbreak; they stated the three fatal cases were “isolated” and “not related” to each other.’
Then, most revealingly, the aspect of the story which has been largely ignored by major media, they reported, ‘Residents believed the outbreak had been caused by contamination from pig breeding farms located in the area. They believed that the farms, operated by Granjas Carroll, polluted the atmosphere and local water bodies, which in turn led to the disease outbreak. According to residents, the company denied responsibility for the outbreak and attributed the cases to “flu.” However, a municipal health official stated that preliminary investigations indicated that the disease vector was a type of fly that reproduces in pig waste and that the outbreak was linked to the pig farms….
…It has been widely documented and subject of US Congressional reports that large-scale indoor animal production facilities such as that of Granjos Carroll are notorious breeding grounds for toxic pathogens…
…application of ‘untreated animal waste on cropland can contribute to excessive nutrient loading, contaminate surface waters, and stimulate bacteria and algal growth and subsequent reductions in dissolved oxygen concentrations in surface waters…
…That is where the real investigation ought to begin, with the health and sanitary dangers of the industrial factory pig farms like the one at Perote in Veracruz. The media spread of panic-mongering reports of every person in the world who happens to contract ‘symptoms’ which vaguely resemble flu or even Swine Flu and the statements to date of authorities such as WHO or CDC are far from conducive to a rational scientific investigation. .
Pigs have nothing to do with this misnomered swine flu?
Think again.
