Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday ruled out deployment of police and public safety personnel to the Lower Base Cemetery, which he ordered off-limits to residents due to possible contamination from the cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) chemical found present in the area.<\/p>\n
Instead he appealed to residents not to venture into the cemetery even during the observance of All Soul’s Day next week for their own safety.<\/p>\n
Tenorio on Wednesday ordered the temporary closure of the area as he expressed concern on the presence of PCBs through toxic waste left way back in the ’60s.<\/p>\n
“We put out the notice because we want to make sure that the life and health of our people are protected,” the governor told reporters yesterday.<\/p>\n
The closure was prompted by the delay in the arrival of contractors of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers who will install temporary measures ahead of a long-term solution to the problem in order to safeguard public health.<\/p>\n
“I want to assure that the administration and the (Division of Environmental Quality) are working so hard in trying to rectify the PCB contamination,” said Tenorio.<\/p>\n
Asked if he would send police patrol to forcibly bar people from visiting the cemetery, the chief executive said he is optimistic residents know the danger of the contamination.<\/p>\n
“I don’t think it’s necessary,” Tenorio said, noting that a recent public hearing in Tanapag has shown that people are aware of the health hazards associated with such contamination.<\/p>\n
“If we put the off-limits sign, I’m sure they know the reason behind it because we want to protect their health,” he explained. “Even one day of prevention is better than nothing.”<\/p>\n
Despite the governor’s order, some residents still flock to the area in preparation for the annual Catholic observance on Nov. 1, which is a day reserved to visit loved ones in the cemetery.<\/p>\n
“I’d like to appeal to the public that because of this possible contamination, their health is in danger,” Tenorio said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio yesterday ruled out deployment of police and public safety personnel to the Lower Base Cemetery, which he ordered off-limits to residents due to possible contamination from the cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) chemical found present in the area.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48584"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48584\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}