[CPEO-MEF] GLOBAL: Philippines base cleanup urged

[Lenny Siegel]

US bases cleanup pinned on Obama

By Tonette Orejas
Central Luzon Desk
The Inquirer (Philippines)
January 21, 2009

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO - Officials of a Filipino group that has been 
pressing the United States since 1992 to clean up the toxic wastes left 
in its former military bases in Central Luzon said they are hoping that 
incoming American President Barack Obama would heed this clamor.

"We're seeing there is more openness and more like us having an access 
to his office because there are a lot of allies [who] have supported him 
during his campaign and have gone to his conventions. [They are] 
Filipino-Americans who have been working on this issue to get the US to 
clean up," Myrla Baldonado, executive director of the People's Task 
Force for Bases Cleanup (PTFBC), said here on Monday.

These, as well as Obama's background as a community organizer in Chicago 
and his social advocacies, including his receptive staff, make the 
campaign feasible now, she said.

"Also, I'm seeing more hope in the American people becoming allies 
especially in the peace movement so they can put pressure on the 
government for them to act in a way that's very different from past 
administrations," she said.

...

For the entire article, see
http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/inquirerheadlines/regions/view/20090121-184581/US-bases-cleanup-pinned-on-Obama

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org