Philippine Volcano

George Black (“Rich and Poor, Under the Volcano,” Column Left, June 24) points out a statistic that was difficult to find in all the media reporting about Mt. Pinatubo: “More than 260 Filipinos have died, suffocated by sulfur fumes, crushed in collapsing buildings, drowned in swollen rivers and mudslides.” What the headlines and TV newscasts reported to us was that American military personnel and their dependents were successfully evacuated from Clark Air Force Base and from Subic Bay Naval Base. Those of us who have relatives in the Philippines looked in vain for more information about other lives, which did not seem to count as much as American lives.

Does this kind of tallying of human life-- based on national origin--remind anyone of the reporting during the Gulf War? According to our media, it was an astounding success because the loss of life was so low. We still do not know the number of Iraqis who were killed--military personnel and civilians; we may never know.

While we rejoice that no American lives were lost as a result of the Mt. Pinatubo eruption, let us not forget that many Filipinos were not so lucky and that people who are homeless and hungry will continue to experience the effects of the disaster.

LENORE NAVARRO, Los Angeles