Petron Corporation and SMC Consolidated Power Corporation will be conducting medical missions for residents of two villages in Limay town on Monday and Tuesday, January 16 and 17, a top executive here announced.
Jaime Santos, consultant and spokesperson for Petron and SMC Power, sent the advisory to this reporter this morning.
“Our medical mission will be on January 16 for Barangay Alangan residents then on January 17 for Barangay Lamao residents,” Santos said.
The medical mission for both barangays will be conducted at their Petron Clinic located along Roman Highway, Km. 41 in front of Petron Power Plant. Consultations, starting at 9 a.m.
Santos told newsmen here that the medical mission is part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the communities surrounding their plants and refineries.
Previous broadcast and published media reports stated that Limay residents, particularly those in Barangay Lamao, were complaining since late last year of skin and respiratory diseases, as well as alleged pollution in the air, rivers and coastlines, blaming them on windblown and soil-seeping ash allegedly from the stockpile of byproducts called bottom ash and fly ash from
their coal-fired plant.
The DENR Central Office, in an interview with Secretary Gina Lopez, had earlier ordered the plants to stop dumping ash on the shared stockpile.
SMC president Ramon S. Ang through television and print interviews denied the illnesses had been caused by the plants.
“I will not allow anybody to suffer,” Ang said. “Please tell them not to jump to conclusions. If it’s scabies, don’t blame it on us. Nevertheless, I will pay for it, whether it’s scabies, whatever their illnesses are,” Ang said in a statement published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer.
In a press briefing last Monday, Bataan Governor Abet Garcia confirmed that the provincial government and the Petron-SMC top management are in close coordination to solve the issues being raised by some residents particularly in Sitio Pex Site, a compound area owned by the PNOC.
“The funds for the relocation came from Petron and SMC. Pag narelocate sila meron nang livelihood. Meron pong aksyon for their relocation pero ang problema yung iba ayaw magpa relocate,” the Governor lamented.
Meanwhile, Limay Mayor Ver Roque also said that the municipal government of Limay will also be conducting their own medical missions with the help of medical specialists from St. Luke’s Hospital in Metro Manila. –Mhike R. Cigaral