Filipinos Tell PM Trudeau Anew: Keep Your Promise, Take Back Your Garbage Now
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has received
another letter from Filipinos who are anxious to get the reeking Canadian
garbage out of Philippine soil.
The letter was signed by over 100 Filipinos attending a Zero
Waste conference organized by the EcoWaste Coalition in observance of the 17th anniversary
today of the country’s Ecological Solid Waste Management Act. It was sent
yesterday via e-mail to justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca
“We remain hopeful you will keep your promise and that
environmental justice will at long last reign supreme,” they told Trudeau.
It will be recalled that Trudeau during his second visit to
the Philippines last
November for the 31St ASEAN Summit assured President Rodrigo Duterte that Canada
At a press conference on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit,
Trudeau stated that “it is now theoretically possible to take (the
garbage) back,” adding that legal barriers and restrictions have already been
dealt with.
Soon after Trudeau left Manila ,
the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority on November 24 sounded off the urgency to
remove the trash-filled containers from Subic
port as the stench has become “unbearable” and posed “health hazards.”
On December 4, no less than Senate President Aquilino
Pimentel III himself proposed a legislative inquiry “to determine whether there
are sufficient laws restricting the indiscriminate entry and dumping of solid
waste and other forms of harmful trash into the Philippines,” citing “the
monumental consequences of allowing Canadian garbage to remain in the country.”
“As you can see, the garbage dumping scandal continues to
rage and nothing could bridle the anger and frustration of Filipinos until the
illegal trash shipments are finally shipped back to Canada for
environmentally-sound disposal,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator,
EcoWaste Coalition.
“We ask PM Trudeau to expedite the re-importation of their
garbage, settle all necessary obligations and put the festering dumping scandal
to rest,” she added.
One hundred three shipping containers of garbage described as
scrap plastics for recycling were sent to the Philippines
Sixty four percent of the shipments were “bailed municipal
solid waste or garbage destined for immediate local disposal and cannot be
recycled” as per waste analysis and characterization study in 2014 by the
Department on Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Such garbage shipments, according to the DENR, “are strictly
prohibited to be exported and are classified as Waste No. Y46 listed in Annex
II of the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movement of
Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.”
Importer Adelfa Eduardo and customs broker Sherjun Saldon
were subsequently charged in court for violation of Republic Act 6969 (Toxic
Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990) and tariff and
customs laws.
In June 2016, Judge Tita Bughao-Alisuag of the Regional Trial
Court of Manila (Branch 1) ordered the return of the 50 shipping containers
covered by Criminal Case No. 143-11191, emphasizing that the Philippines is not
a “trash bin” and that the dumping incident “should not be made a precedent for
other countries to follow.” The court order has yet to be complied with.
Ang Nars Partylist, EcoWaste Coalition, Global Alliance for
Incinerator Alternatives, Public Services Independent Labor Confederation, and
the Samahan ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa are intervenors in the
said case.
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