Crayons are hardly a match for the U.S. military. But they were the only “weapons” that six-year-old Crizel Valencia had in battling leukemia. Crizel’s drawings of butterflies and herself, drawn as a little bald girl underneath an umbrella, were later converted into cards sold to pay for her chemotherapy. Despite her strong spirit, Crizel died in 1999, becoming one of hundreds of Filipino children whose illnesses or deaths were linked to the toxic wastes at the former U.S. military bases of Clark Air and Subic Naval Bases.

The “meekness” of Crizel’s drawings contrast starkly with the dominating military presence the United States had in the Philippines for almost a century. Since 1898 until the closing of the bases in 1991, the United States maintained a military presence in the Philippines occupying enormous tracts of land in the northern island of Luzon. Clark Airfield was originally only nine square kilometers smaller than the island nation of Singapore. The Subic Bay Naval Base was larger than the San Francisco Bay Area. These bases were the largest U.S. military installations overseas up until their closing.

At the end of the Second World War, the United States began to industrialize these sites, building airfields, ship repair facilities, petroleum tank farms and other facilities. In addition, large tracts of land were separated out for use as firing ranges for live ammunition practice. These activities generate and emit hundreds of different kinds of hazardous materials.

Documents from the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. General Accounting Office, World Health Organization and U.S. and Philippine environmental firms have confirmed the presence of unsafe levels of hazardous substances at over 50 sites. The chemicals range from solvents, heavy metals, pesticides, polychlorinated bi-phenyls, unexploded munitions, asbestos and petroleum products in the soil and groundwater.

Many of these contaminants are carcinogenic and known to cause irreversible damage, particularly to infants and children during their developmental period. Mercury, for example, was found in one of the drinking wells in the community in which Crizel resided. Mercury is known to cause brain damage to infants.

These contaminants have already affected people from the nearby communities. Scrap metal scavengers from surrounding communities have been killed and maimed digging up unexploded ordnance from unmarked firing ranges at Clark and Subic. Thousands of former base workers have fallen ill or died from asbestosis, a lung cancer contracted from the exposure to asbestos, an insulating product that was used illegally at the bases. In Crizel’s community, a staggering number of leukemia cases, cancers, cardiovascular illnesses, kidney, urinary, nervous and female system problems continue to emerge.

Since their closing, the bases have been transformed into “economic freeport zones” filled with duty-free shops, golf courses and recreational areas. A number of domestic and foreign companies have located to the bases, including Federal Express and America Online. Many of the former buildings have been converted into export processing sites where computer parts, furniture and clothing are assembled by thousands of Filipino workers and shipped out for sale. Subic Base, with its beautiful coastal location and rich rainforests, has been transformed into an eco-tourist spot for hiking, fishing and scuba diving.

Unfortunately, many of the tourists, investors and workers are unaware of the ticking time-bombs that lie within the base. Recent landfill restoration at Subic Base excavated napalm bombs that could have potentially harmed hundreds of nearby workers. Mercury and other chemicals found in the sediments of Subic Bay endanger anyone fishing or swimming in the waters. And the countless number of chemicals found in the soil at both bases is constantly carried through the wind and air affecting all those who enter.

The Philippines has neither the financial nor technical capacities to deal with this problem. Bases of similar scope and size in the United States cost one billion dollars apiece for a comprehensive investigation and clean up—a price tag the Filipinos cannot afford to even consider.

For the past seven years, the People’s Task Force for Bases Clean Up and its U.S. partners, the United States Working Group for Philippine Bases Clean Up (U.S.W.G.) and the Filipino/American Coalition for Environmental Solutions (FACES), have appealed to the United States to take responsibility for the toxic contamination. When the People’s Task Force and the U.S.W.G. first raised the issue to both the United States and Philippine governments, they were met with fear and denial. The Philippine government did not want to acknowledge the problem in fear that it might scare off investors. The United States did not want to admit responsibility because of the Pandora’s Box that would be opened, requiring them to clean up their military stations around the world.