Fed-up folk march to protest poultry, piggery stench

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    ANGELES CITY – Amid reports of school children getting sick from overpowering stench almost daily in this city, grandmothers and their grandchildren joined religious and environmental groups in an eight-kilometer march yesterday to protest a 20-year-old problem air pollution blamed on huge piggeries and poultries in neighboring Porac town.

    San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Virgilio Pablo David, addressing Porac officials during a rally at the Porac town hall, warned of class suit not only against some 15 piggery and poultry owners, but also against Porac Mayor Conradlito de la Cruz and other local officials should they fail to act on strong piggery stench that waft almost daily towards wide areas in Angeles and Porac.

    The marchers, numbering over a thousand, carried with them 12 babies’ coffins which they later lined in front of the Porac municipal hall to symbolize the danger posed by piggery pollution on the future generations.

    The Pinoy Gumising Ka Movement (PGKM), an umbrella organization representing environmental and other groups in Pampanga, reported resurgence of illnesses in schools in several barangays in Angeles and Porac whenever air flow directs piggery stench towards them.

    “Students complain of dizziness, stomach ache, and vomiting. This has always been the case for many, many years now,” PGKM chairman Ruperto Cruz said.

    A statement distributed by PGKM during the march cited at least two deaths attributed to air pollution from the piggeries. It attributed the deaths of Godofredo Agapito and his wife, who was not identified, to pollution-related asthma complications.

    The PGKM demanded the resignation of Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) director Lormelyn Claudio and her staff for their alleged failure to act on the pollution issue for the past several years.

    Claudio arrived later at the rally and vowed to act on the complaints within two weeks. She stressed, however, that most of the piggeries and poultry farms had already complied with anti-pollution requirements of the government.

    She said, however, that six of the piggeries which were non-compliant were issued notices of violations (NOV) of environmental laws and were told to immediately comply with anti-pollution requirements.

    Claudio said that while the problem on odor raised by the rallyists was “not in the mandate” of her office, her team had already performed last Monday the expensive “ammonia and hydrogen sulfide test” at the piggeries and poultries to determine whether the emissions causing foul odor were within government standards.

    “It’s a test done usually only for heavy industries, but we did it here,” Claudio said.

    She said that if the results of the test reveal adverse results, the issue would be brought to the attention of the local government of Porac for action.


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