43 RP CONGRESSMEN SIGN DEBT CANCELLATION MOVE

February 5, 2009

43 RP CONGRESSMEN SIGN DEBT CANCELLATION MOVE

Manila – Forty three Philippine Congressmen yesterday signed the petition to cancel the 1994 Austrian government loan worth Php503 million used to fund the defunct Austrian Medical Waste Incinerator Project.

At the Philippine House of Representatives, members of Ecowaste Coalition, Freedom from Debt Coalition, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA), Greenpeace-Southeast Asia and Health Care Without Harm-Southeast Asia (HCWH-SEA) serenaded the Parliamentarians with music from Mozart and other original Filipino music.

“The idea is to appeal to the Congressmen’s moral sense. At a time when the world is suffering from economic crisis, the money that will be used to pay dubious loan must go where it is most needed,” said Ronnel Lim, HCWH-SEA Program Officer for Anti-Incineration.

The government is paying an average of US$2 million a year until 2014 for the loan. In a special provision in 2008 National Budget, the Congress refused allocation for interest payments of the incinerators and other debts that are “fraudulent, wasteful, and/or useless.” However, the President vetoed the move.

“This petition aims to renew the call of the Congressmen. Last year, they made it clear that we should not be paying this loan. Now, the petition which will be sent to Austrian government in April, aims to raise the campaign to a higher level,” Lim said. “Our parliamentarians have spoken. We will bring the issue directly to Austria.”

Earlier, HCWH-SEA called on the Congress to instead channel the loan payment to environmentally-safe medical waste disposal facilities. “Facilities which are not harmful to the environment and to people’s health.”

Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) is a global coalition of more than 400 organizations in more than 50 countries working to protect health by reducing pollution in health care sector. For more information, visit www.noharm.org. (30)