Former Subic workers file asbestos suit

Former warship workers in the dismantled United States Naval Base in Subic will file charges against 24 American firms to seek compensation for damages to their health due to exposure to asbestos products.

Two of the 1,000 victims were identified as Ronnie Ferreras and Cess Olmo, residents of Zambales and Bataan, respectively. Ferreras is presently undergoing treatment at the Ospital ng Olongapo due to a lung-related sickness.

“Another victim, Maximo Orosco, is already dead and is now being buried at their home in Zambales,” said Teofilo Juatco, chairman of the People’s Task Force for Bases Clean Up.
Juatco said they will demand the American firms to pay the victims at least 100,000 US dollars as punitive damages. He added most of the victims were stevedores at the said US naval base.
“We will ask them to give the victims such compensation because they suffered anxieties and economic setback,” Juatco said.

The PTFBCU chairman said their group is closely coordinating with American lawyer Benjamin Cassidy, who pledged to help them in filing the case. He. however, refused to identify the firms that will be charged.

Juatco said Ferreras, 61, who worked as a shop machinist for 25 years at the Ship Repair Facilities, started to feel various symptoms of chest pains, vertigo and drastic weight loss in the late 1990s while 64-year-old Olmo, who worked in the Subic base as shop planner general, recently complained of various ailments such as lasting cough and fatigue.

Juatco said medical findings on the case of Ferreras and Olmo confirmed that their symptoms are a sign of early asbestosis which could lead to mesothelioma or cancer.

Ferreras and Olmo have been exposed to asbestos powder, cloth, block covering, mud and brake lining and fiberglass particles during the course of their work in the base.

Juatco said the exposure to asbestos was part of the workers’ 24-hour work shift, where they are tasked to urgently replace or patch up old asbestos pipes or American warships, and also inspect damaged areas or machine parts that should be repaired to determine which asbestos products should be used.

“Asbestos caused irreparable damage to their lungs, chest cavity, cardiovascular system and other parts of their body, which were not discovered or diagnosed until 2005,” said Juatco.

The two employees also claimed that there are more than 8,000 workers who were also in direct contact of asbestos in the base since 1978 until the base was closed in 1992. Joel Zurbano