ANGELES CITY – The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) has surfaced as the major culprit in the brewing air pollution controversy that led hundreds of adversely affected folk from this city and neighboring Porac town to unite in recent protest actions against a “powerful stench” from piggeries and poultries afflicting them for two decades now.
Following a march and a rally held at the municipal hall of Porac the other day, owners of big commercial piggeries and poultries located in Porac held a press conference here yesterday to accuse the EMB of failure to better monitor the real sources of pollutive stench reaching wide populated areas in both Angeles and Porac.
Orlando Pangilinan, legal counsel for the 10 biggest piggeries and poultries in Porac, said the EMB failed to accurately monitor the sources of air pollution which he blamed on other smaller establishments operating with sub-standard anti-pollution facilities and even without permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“The EMB’s monitoring is too random so that even the establishments which have complied with all the environmental requirements of the government are lumped with the others as the source of the stench,” Pangilinan said.
While he represented only 10 big farms in Porac, Pangilinan cited reports there could be as many as 37 other piggeries and poultries operating in and around Angeles that could be the cause of the stench.
During the rally in Porac, EMB regional director Lormelyn Claudio reported that her office had issued notices of violations of environmental laws to six piggeries in Porac. She also said that last Monday, her team conducted tests on ammonia and hydrogen sulfide of the air near the farms to find out if the elements are within government standards.
Pangilinan was accompanied during yesterday’s press conference by “experts” who disputed claims of the rallyists that foul odor from the pig and chicken farms could adversely affect health.
Dexter Olito, who was introduced as a genetic engineer, said that if the hydrogen sulfide content in the farms were high, farm workers should have succumbed to illnesses already.
Olito, however, admitted that foul odor could indeed come from the farms because cleaning and treatment of wastes could be done only at intervals. He said that stench would escape from farms at about 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. when the air is usually heavy with moist.
San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Virgilio Pablo David had warned of class suit not only against the 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 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.
Following a march and a rally held at the municipal hall of Porac the other day, owners of big commercial piggeries and poultries located in Porac held a press conference here yesterday to accuse the EMB of failure to better monitor the real sources of pollutive stench reaching wide populated areas in both Angeles and Porac.
Orlando Pangilinan, legal counsel for the 10 biggest piggeries and poultries in Porac, said the EMB failed to accurately monitor the sources of air pollution which he blamed on other smaller establishments operating with sub-standard anti-pollution facilities and even without permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
“The EMB’s monitoring is too random so that even the establishments which have complied with all the environmental requirements of the government are lumped with the others as the source of the stench,” Pangilinan said.
While he represented only 10 big farms in Porac, Pangilinan cited reports there could be as many as 37 other piggeries and poultries operating in and around Angeles that could be the cause of the stench.
During the rally in Porac, EMB regional director Lormelyn Claudio reported that her office had issued notices of violations of environmental laws to six piggeries in Porac. She also said that last Monday, her team conducted tests on ammonia and hydrogen sulfide of the air near the farms to find out if the elements are within government standards.
Pangilinan was accompanied during yesterday’s press conference by “experts” who disputed claims of the rallyists that foul odor from the pig and chicken farms could adversely affect health.
Dexter Olito, who was introduced as a genetic engineer, said that if the hydrogen sulfide content in the farms were high, farm workers should have succumbed to illnesses already.
Olito, however, admitted that foul odor could indeed come from the farms because cleaning and treatment of wastes could be done only at intervals. He said that stench would escape from farms at about 5 a.m. and 7 a.m. when the air is usually heavy with moist.
San Fernando Auxiliary Bishop Virgilio Pablo David had warned of class suit not only against the 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 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.
