Envi orgs slam
disposal of Canadian waste in PH landfill
Press Release
July 10, 2015
MANILA –
Environmental and public health groups expressed frustration and
disappointment over the sudden disposal of 29 of the 50 container vans
containing mixed wastes that were illegally imported from Canada,
despite the absence of a court order directing the illegal shipment’s
disposal.
A news report confirmed that
the waste shipment has been accepted by Metro Clark Waste Management
Corporation, a sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac, at P900 per ton.
Based on its website, however, Metro Clark does not appear to be
allowed to process some of the wastes found in the illegal Canadian
waste shipment, such as electronic wastes, which is one of the waste
materials discovered inside the cargo vans.
“We can not correct a
mistake with another mistake. Disposing of the illegal shipment
without the proper directives from the regional trial court and
without any technical assessment of the wastes contents makes a
mockery of our laws and puts public health at risk yet again,” said
Anna Kapunan, BAN Toxics’ Chemicals Management Coordinator. “We hope
that this is not another case of political expediency supplanting
public interest and safety.”
Environmental watchdog group
EcoWaste Coalition condemned the dumping of the Canadian trash in
Tarlac as “inexcusably anti-Filipino.”
“The local disposal of the
Canadian trash amid the opposition in the streets and even the halls
of Congress and Senate came like a thief in the night. It’s
inexcusably anti-Filipino that must not happen again. President Aquino
needs to assure our people through his upcoming State of the Nation
Address that robust measures will be put in place to plug the
loopholes that led to such a horrendous act of disrespect to our
environmental integrity,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator of
EcoWaste Coalition.
For more than a year, civil
society groups have been clamoring for the return of the 50 container
vans to Canada, but last May, another batch of waste-filled containers
coming from the same exporter has been discovered in Subic Port. It
was found out that 48-forty five footer container vans containing the
same kind of wastes arrived at the Philippine ports at around the same
time as the first 50 container vans in question.
The first shipment has been
a subject of 14 legal cases filed by the Department of Justice against
the importer Chronics Plastics, Inc. and its owner Adelfa Eduardo. To
date, no court order has yet been released approving the disposal of
its contents.
"Our fears have been
confirmed. For the Aquino government to allow this to happen right
under our noses – without proper court order and community
consultation- is unthinkable. It is legally, socially, and morally
unacceptable to dispose of foreign waste, disguised and declared as
non-hazardous, in our very own backyard. This move is a bad precedent
and sends a signal to other unscrupulous and illegal waste traders to
ship their unwanted trash to the Philippines. It is inconceivable how
our own government has carelessly acted without regard to our
sovereignty,” said Abigail Aguilar, Toxics Campaigner for Greenpeace
Philippines.
Meanwhile, Global Alliance
for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) admonished the government for
making a clandestine move to dispose the Canadian waste amidst the
heavy downpour and widespread floods currently being experienced in
Luzon.
“The surreptitious transport
of these container vans amid this bad weather reeks of bad faith.
Indeed, while our collective attention are directed towards disaster
risk reduction and management, quietly the BoC slips 29 container vans
out of Manila to Clark for disposal knowing fully well that a number
of legal actions related to those illegal shipment are pending in
Manila RTCs,” said Paeng Lopez, Program Coordinator of GAIA.
Last November 2014, a waste
assessment and character study (WACS) was conducted by the Department
of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), and witnessed the members
of the interagency committee composed of BoC, Department of Health,
Department of Foreign Affairs, and a representative of the Canadian
Embassy. The WACS revealed that the contents of the sampled containers
are heterogenous, or mixed wastes, comprising of household wastes,
unrecyclable plastics, broken bottles and electronic wastes. Earlier
statements from the DENR said the shipment contains hazardous wastes
and must be sent back to Canada in accordance with the Basel
Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of Hazardous
Wastes.
But on March 2015, a sudden
turnaround was made by the DENR when they announced that the wastes
were not toxic, and can be disposed here in the Philippines. This came
weeks before President Benigno Aquino III’s state visit to Canada to
meet with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and the leaders of the
Canadian government.
“The WACS was simply a
cursory visual assessment of the waste. It is not a definitive
assessment of the toxicity of the content nor the dangers of the
constituents of the waste,” explains Kapunan. “If there were
infectious wastes, radioactive wastes or even heavy metals in the
containers, visual inspection may not reveal this. It is disconcerting
that the disposal is underway without taking sensible and
precautionary steps to ensure the wastes are not toxic and can be
properly managed.”
GAIA’s Lopez couldn’t hide
his disgust, citing that the victims of the whole issue of the
Canadian waste are the common people living in Capas, Tarlac.
“Whose interest is the
Aquino government really protecting? We feel sorry for the frontline
communities in Clark who has to host this dirty reminder that our
national government has no intention of protecting our welfare. It is
detestable that in own country, our own government upholds the
interest of Canada instead of ours,” Lopez said.