Green groups to
Canada: Time to take back your toxic waste
Press Release
April 3, 2014
MAKATI – Green groups
and civil society organizations gathered today at the Canadian Embassy
to call for the “re-exportation” of their toxic wastes which were
discovered by the Enforcement Department of the Bureau of Customs (BOC)
headed by Deputy Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno last January and
initially intended as plastic scraps supposedly for recycling. The
groups delivered a petition letter to Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder
to ask for the immediate return of the 50 container vans of toxic
wastes back to its Canadian port of origin.
Composed of ANG NARS
Party-List, Greenpeace, Ecowaste Coalition, Mother Earth Foundation,
Green Convergence, Ban Toxics, Public Services Labor Independent
Confederation and the Ateneo School of Government, the groups
expressed their dismay at the inaction by the Canadian government and
demanded that the shipment firm Chronic Incorporated, and its
Philippine consignee Chronic Plastics, return the hazardous shipment
back to Canada at their expense.
“These toxic wastes pose
imminent risks, threats and hazards to our environment, which in turn,
result to irreparable damage on the health of the Filipinos. So we
demand for the re-exportation of these Canadian wastes immediately,”
said Rep. Leah Paquiz of ANG NARS Party-List.
According to the BOC, the
shipment, which started arriving as early as June 2013, contained
mixed waste composed of plastic bags, bottles, newspaper, household
garbage, and even used adult diaper.
“The Philippines is not and
will never be a dumping ground for international wastes. We ask that
Ambassador Reeder to cooperate and help expedite the return of their
toxic waste that have been ‘overstaying’ in our shores since June,”
said Abigail Aguilar, Toxics Campaigner of Greenpeace Philippines.
Greenpeace said that the
toxic shipment was a clear violation of the Basel Convention on the
Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes, an international treaty,
to which both the Philippines and Canada are signatories, designed to
eliminate the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and
specifically intends to protect developing nations from becoming the
dumping ground of industrialized countries. The Canadian shipment also
violated Republic Act 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear
Wastes Control Act of 1990).
An online petition at
change.org was also initiated to gather signatures and put pressure to
the Canadian embassy to act swiftly on the issue. change.org/DiBasurahanAngPilipinas