On eve of state visit, PNoy
told:
Do not forget the
illegal Canadian wastes
Press Release
May 4, 2015
MANILA –
Environmental justice and public health groups tell President Benigno
Simeon Aquino III to not forget the illegal Canadian waste issue as he
leaves for a state visit in Canada this week.
Mr. Aquino will be in Canada
on May 7-9 for a state visit, and his itinerary includes meetings with
top Canada officials, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and
Governor General David Johnston.
“Mr. President, we urge you
to stand up to the Canadians and ask Prime Minister Harper to take
back their illegal waste shipment,” said BAN Toxics executive
director, Atty. Richard Gutierrez. “Do this not simply because it is
the right and legal thing to do, but do so to defend the dignity of
the Filipinos.”
In 2013, the Bureau of
Customs (BOC) seized 50 forty-footer container vans containing various
waste materials and hazardous wastes imported from Canada, which were
misdeclared by the Canadian exporter as ‘assorted scrap plastic
materials for recycling’.
Citing a change.org
petition, Gutierrez urged President Aquino to ‘grab this chance and
show the world that the Philippines is not a dumping site’. The
petition has already garnered more than 25,000 signatures, with a
considerable portion of signatures coming from Canada, and is
continually growing.
The groups fear that the
decision of the interagency committee to dispose of the Canadian
wastes here will set a precedent and give way to more garbage being
dumped here by richer countries like Canada. They see this as a result
of ‘indirect pressure from the Canadian government’ by doling out
economic packages in exchange of brushing the Canadian waste issue
under the rug.
"PNOY should not sweep the
issue of Canada's waste under the rug during his visit to Canada on
May 7 for the sake of not hurting diplomatic relations. There is
nothing diplomatic in dumping waste to another nation and still expect
a friendly stance from them,” explained Greenpeace Philippines toxics
campaigner Abigail Aguilar. “The issue is of equal importance as
labor, infrastructure and development assistance. The Filipino people
– whom PNoy refers to as his bosses – are the ones most disadvantaged
by this irresponsible waste dumping by Canada and by both governments'
inaction over the issue.”
The interagency committee in
charge of the Canadian waste is composed of the Department of Foreign
Affairs (DFA), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR),
Bureau of Customs (BOC), and the Department of Health (DOH).
The Canadian government
continues to dodge the issue by saying this is a private matter
between the Canadian exporter, Chronic Inc., and its Filipino
counterpart, Chronic Plastics. However, various sectors have pointed
out that the illegal shipment is a violation of the Basel Convention
on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal,
an international treaty that regulates toxic waste and other wastes to
which both Canada and the Philippines are parties to.
As per the Basel Convention,
the illegal shipment should have been re-exported to Canada.. The
Convention requires the exporting country, in this case Canada, to
take back the illegally seized shipment and to pay the costs for the
return.
Apart from the Basel
Convention, the importation violates a number of local laws such as
the DENR Administrative Order 28 (Interim Guidelines for the
Importation of Recyclable Materials Containing Hazardous Substances)
and Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of
2000.
“By allowing Canada to
dispose of its illegal wastes in the country, the President will in
effect, abet and aid in the violation of international law. That is
not the “matuwid na daan” we expect from President Pnoy, nor what the
Filipinos put him in office for,” Gutierrez lamented.
The shipment has been
festering in the Philippine ports for more than 700 days and,
according to the groups’ calculations, the government is spending at
least P144,000 a day for the loss of income for storage space and the
additional expenses for demurrage, which, to date, costs around P90
million.
Last year, a petition was
signed by international organizations to express their concern over
the illegal waste shipment and urged Canada to take back its waste.
Representatives from NGOs in several countries, including Australia,
China, Germany, India, Russia, and the US, signed the letter.
“To allow our country to be
treated as a dumping ground of Canada in the name of ‘preserving
diplomatic relations’ indicates how little – if at all – this
government appreciates our sovereignty as a nation,” ended Global
Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives’ Paeng Lopez.