AFTER ALL
Behn fer. Hortaleza

THE furor over sodium benzoate as a food preservative used in toyo, ketchup and even some skin care products we believe is another one of those black propaganda among competing manufacturers and their products.

Datu Puti products particularly have been the latest “victim” of verbal, written and online canards that claim the alternative preservative, sodium benzoate, in these is harmful to health.

Come to think of it, if that were an iota true, many would have died by now, considering that the DP vinegar goes well with the “pulutan” and most other food on the table.The fact is no less than the Bureau of Food and Drugs allows use of sodium benzoate as “alternative preservative for food” when used in proper amount.

Datu Puti reps have said all that goes into their product is “katas ng tubo at tubig” and swear they follow the guidelines set by BFAD, which agency itself says the ingredient is safe “so long as it is within standard levels.”

By the way, I did check on my cola, yes, the one with “no sugar”, you know, and guess what – it also contained sodium benzoate! Now, how about that, we’ve gulped down one too many bottles of it already and here I am still writing (and blogging too). Living testimony, if you can call it that.

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If we reckon right, by today, Sunday, March 19 or possibly tomorrow, March 20, that coal-spilling barge-in-distress just off the shores of Agno which has been blackening and despoiling the water, corals and other marine animals in that area for a good three months now, should be gone.

That, or the owners get sued, warned the provincial government thru Provincial Administrator Virgilio Solis, Jr.

In clear tones at the March 10 meeting in Urduja House, Solis said Asian Shipping Corporation must tow away its damaged vessel and clean up the mess it caused on the coastal town within ten days.

If you recall, the barge was on its way to San Fernando, La Union carrying some 4.6 metric tons of coal when the towing cable connecting it to a tug boat snapped sometime before Christmas Day last year. Buffeted by big waves in the area, it has since been spilling, accidentally possibly, its load of coal into the water, creating pollution of great magnitude.

So ill equipped and untrained are our local safety and mop-up maritime authorities there simply is nothing being done to at least control the damage, allowing poor Nature to just absorb it.

What takes the cake in this whole fingerpointing scenario already taken up by local media and national correspondents in reams and reams of stories the past months is the surprising retort of municipal authorities at the meeting, as written in some accounts, that there seems to have been no negative effect of the accidental coal spill to the village’s seashore.. sofar.

So, what was all that fuss created by our environment-crusading friends Lydia Colobong-Arilla, Prof. Nick Melecio, Yolanda S. Fuertes, the DENR and Maritime guys and maybe even Atty. Boy Solis himself?

Were they all, to borrow neighbor columnist Ging’s classic line a week back, reduced to just crying over spilt coal?