The many faces of FPC
Formosa Plastics Corp’s (FPC) steel company in Ha Tinh, Vietnam, has been fined US$500 million for discharging polluted wastewater causing massive fish deaths in coastal provinces of Vietnam. FPC has pledged to pay compensation.
Taking a tough approach, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc said that if a similar incident is repeated, the factory would be closed.
The FPC’s naphtha cracker in Yunlin County’s Mailiao Township (麥寮) releases more than 140,000 tonnes of fine particulate matter smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM2.5) and other pollutants every year, making the air quality in Yunlin the worst in the nation.
A report by National Taiwan University shows that the incidence of cancer has seen a marked increase in Mailiao and the surrounding areas, including Taisi (台西), Dongshi (東勢) and Lunbei (崙背鄉) townships, since the plant was opened in 1999.
In 2013, Advanced Semiconductor Engineering Inc’s (ASE) K7 plant released toxic wastewater directly into the Houjin River (後勁溪) and in September last year, the Kaohsiung branch of the Taiwan High Court reversed a lower court verdict, finding all five defendants in the pollution case not guilty of charges, a verdict that can be appealed.
At the end of the past century, there was a global surge in demand for corporate social responsibility, requiring that companies, in addition to their own financial operations, also should consider the social and environmental impact of their operations.
A look at the Web sites of some large corporations shows that they all have a section on corporate social responsibility and FPC announced the establishment of a center for the promotion of corporate social responsibility. The center is charged with the important task of bringing the management of businesses and factories together to reduce energy consumption and pollution, and create a harmonious environment.
Taiwan is a democracy ruled by law, but when it comes to pollution and food safety, it is often powerless to file lawsuits and ask for compensation. When it does, wealthy corporations hire a group of high-powered lawyers and prosecutors are often powerless in lawsuits, such as the one against ASE and the food safety lawsuit against Ting Hsin International Group.
An environmental impact assessment system has been in place for more than 20 years, but business owners often threaten the government, saying that they will move their operations overseas.
When FPC broke the law in Vietnam, it remained silent, bowed its head and agreed to pay huge fines, but early last month, Yunlin County Commissioner Lee Chin-yung (李進勇) criticized the company for ignoring to pay the NT$1.9 billion it was legally required to pay the county government for the development of the Mailiao power plant.
Meanwhile, Yunlin County residents continue to feel that they are being treated as second-class citizens as they face a gray, polluted sky and breathe heavily polluted air.
Wu Po-hsun
Kaohsiung
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