PDI Editorial: We are not a dumping ground
Editorial
Philippine Daily Inquirer
24 January 2021
WE ARE NOT A DUMPING GROUND
As the country observes Zero Waste Month, a piece of happy news for a change: A
customs official was honored this week for standing up and pushing back against
the dumping of foreign waste – a problem that advocates warn will continue to
pile up if the government does not heed calls to enact crucial policies,
including a comprehensive ban on all waste imports.
The environmental watchdog EcoWaste Coalition lauded John Simon, Bureau of
Customs (BOC) district collector from Northern Mindanao, and gave him the
Environmental Justice Award for his “exemplary leadership, unfaltering
dedication and focused action to protect public health and the environment from
hazardous waste from overseas,” which led to the return of 7,408 metric tons of
illegal waste shipments to South Korea.
Simon will be receiving an award from the United Nations Environment Programme
next month, as well as the 2020 Asia Environmental Enforcement Award by the World Customs
Organization – a first in BOC’s history.
Simon proves that there are men and women in government who remain committed
and principled public servants. As
EcoWaste Coalition president Eileen Sison noted in a statement, Simon work
doggedly to “uphold our country’s tariff and customs and environmental
laws…” He initiated bilateral
negotiations with South
Korea shortly after the consignee failed to
secure import permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources
for the trash, which was misdeclared as “plastic synthetic flakes.” The waste imports arrived from Pyeongtaek City , South Korea , in two batches at the
Mindanao Container Terminal in Tagoloan in 2018, and were sent back in seven
batches packed in 364 containers between Jan. 13, 2019 and Sept. 15, 2020, even
amid the COVID-19 pandemic and despite complex diplomatic channels.
In his message acknowledging the recognition bestowed on him, Simon said ‘(e)nvironmental
justice demands that we assert our sovereign right not to be treated as dumping
ground for wastes from abroad that can put the health of our people and that of
our ecosystems in harm’s way.”
In the report “Waste Trade in the Philippines ”
released in March last year, Greenpeace Philippines and EcoWaste Coalition
warned that “various other waste shipments – municipal or toxic waste, from all
around the world – were regularly entering the country through both legal and
illegal means.” And the Philippines ,
the report said, will remain a preferred destination for waste shipments as
long as the government continues to refuse calls to enforce a comprehensive ban
on all waste imports.
Advocates point to loopholes in the laws that have made the country “wide open”
to both legal and “legitimized” waste trade, particularly those that ban only
hazardous and toxic wastes while allowing other types of wastes such as plastic
bottles, electronic and electrical equipment, used batteries, etc., to still be
imported and subsequently processed, whether through recycling or disposal.
“The country will remain vulnerable to continued exploitation if it does not
take policy measures to close its borders against waste trade,” the
Greenpeace/EcoWaste report stated, further noting that while Asean states such
as Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei have ratified the Basel Ban Amendment, which
prohibits the importation of hazardous wastes from developed to less developed
ones, the Philippines has yet to take action on it. It added that the country must immediately
enforce a comprehensive ban on all waste importation.
Simon – the country’s first Environmental Justice awardee – expressed hopes
that his award would inspire others to persevere in protecting the country’s
borders from foreign waste dumping, because the job “is too big for one agency
to accomplish.” Will other government
officials heed his call?
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