MANILA - PHILIPPINE President Benigno Aquino said on Saturday the government had completed the safe detonation of some 181 tonnes of Cold War-era bombs left by US forces formerly stationed in the country.
He said some 181 tonnes of munitions, including anti-submarine depth charges, had been safely disposed of in an operation lasting several weeks.
'Imagine, that was just a portion!' he told reporters after witnessing the safe detonation of the remaining five tonnes from the cache at Crow Valley, a former gunnery range of US forces previously stationed at Clark Air Base.
'This was really one of my first nightmares upon assuming office' in June last year.
Mr Aquino said some of the bombs dated to 1947 and were previously stored at Caballo, a tiny island at the mouth of Manila Bay.
US forces handed over Clark, Subic Naval Base and several smaller facilities to Manila in 1992, a year after the Philippine senate refused to ratify a new bases treaty between the two allies. -- AFP
0 Comments:
Post a Comment