Civil groups look forward to Trudeau’s arrival in PH, to raise trash issue

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Photo from the Liberal Party of Canada)

MANILA – Environmental, health and labor groups looked forward to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s arrival in the Philippines this week as they sought to ask him to take prompt action on the hazardous wastes illegally imported from Canada.

It can be recalled that several container vans carrying non-recyclable garbage arrived in the country in 2013, either unloading the contents in landfills or remained festering in ports.

With Trudeau confirming his attendance at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit on November 18 and 19, civil groups saw this as an opportunity for him and President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to discuss the matter at the sidelines of the economic meetings.

The groups also hoped that Trudeau would respond favorably and order that the illegally shipped trash be brought back to Canada – and finally resolve the issue.

“We hope that the winds of change blowing across Canada will lead to Trudeau’s Cabinet wasting no time to re-import the illegally exported garbage to the Philippines and bring this prolonged controversy to a close,” EcoWaste Coalition Rene Pineda said in an InterAksyon report.

“With PM (Prime Minister) Trudeau at the helm, we expect the Canadian government to turn around the previous stonewalling by the Harper government, to make things right and just, and take back the waste that Canada exported to the Philippines,” Ban Toxics chief operations officer Shalimar Vitan said in the same report.

EcoWaste Coalition also urged the government to declare the toxic wastes as ‘basura non grata.’ Activists pointed out that the dumping of such shipments violated the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines, Department of Environment and Natural Resources Administrative Order 1994-28 (The Importation of Recyclable Materials Containing Hazardous Substances), Republic Act 6969 (Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act), and the Republic Act 9003 (Ecological Solid Waste Management Act).