International group renews call for debt cancellation between RP and Austria

August 15, 2008
INTERNATIONAL GROUP RENEWS CALL FOR DEBT CANCELLATION BETWEEN RP AND AUSTRIA

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH)-Southeast Asia calls on concerned government agencies to repudiate the 1996 “chronic and recurring” P504 million loan the government entered into calling it as “just what the doctor ordered” move in time for Hospital Week Celebration.

The loan agreement worth half a million pesos involves a buyer export credit facility agreement to purchase 26 medical waste incinerators and 36 disinfection units for government-run hospitals.

“While the intention is good, the project has become obsolete,” said Merci Ferrer, Executive Director of HCWH. “The 26 incinerators were decommissioned following the approval of the Clean Air Act.” Although the Act has been passed in 1999, the use of medical waste incinerators was extended up to July 23, 2003.

“After five years, we are still paying for incinerators that we no longer use,” Ferrer pointed out.

“Allocating close to US$2 million a year is too much burden to Filipinos. It should have been cancelled years ago. The loan agreement is past overdue,” Ferrer said.

Loan payment started in 2002 and now amounts to US$2 million a year. The government will continue to pay until 2014 with an interest rate of 4% annually.

“This money could go a long way for a country whose total health expenditure is way below than the recommended,” said Ferrer.

Other than being obsolete, Ferrer pointed out that in the years that the incinerators were in use; it failed to past the emission tests conducted by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Health (DOH) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

She added that in a 2003 emission test, one of the incinerators exceeded the Clean Air Act limit set for dioxins. Exposure to dioxin has been linked to impairment of the immune, nervous and endocrine systems and the reproductive functions.

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of 473 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org.