Toxic Waste Dumped in Subic

The title sounds shocking, right? News is being reported across the Philippines that US toxic waste has been dumped in Subic.

However, don't let that fool you. The United States did not dump the waste, but we all know Philippine news loves to demonize the US, so that's why "US" or "USA" or "United States of America" is in every title on every website and every television news station.

Here's who's really doing it:

SBMA records showed that wastes dumped by the tanker MT Glenn Guardian were collected from American ships that joined the recently concluded joint military exercises in the country.

The tanker is one of the vessels owned by Glenn Defense Marine Asia, a Malaysian company operating in several countries which services American ships in the Philippines.

Yep! Not American. It is actually Malaysian.

Technically, this should be a minor news story. The government and environmental agencies aren't throwing a fit because freaking toxic waste is being dumped near the Philippines. It is throwing a fit because they didn't own permits to dump it in that location. Actually, the permits would have been easy to get. They dumped it the "safe" distance away (37 kilometers). I put that in quotation marks because that is what the Philippines calls safe.

So actually, instead of the headline reading "Toxic Waste Dumped in Subic", it should be "Government and news media freaks out over company not having a permit".

If you want to throw a fit about this Malaysian company dumping toxic waste, then take it up with the Philippine government. They are the ones that allow it in the first place. You only need a permit to do it.