{"id":29129,"date":"2014-10-17T17:05:05","date_gmt":"2014-10-17T09:05:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29129"},"modified":"2014-10-17T17:07:07","modified_gmt":"2014-10-17T09:07:07","slug":"filipinos-call-on-canada-to-repatriate-mountain-of-ontario-garbage-shipped-to-manila","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/17\/filipinos-call-on-canada-to-repatriate-mountain-of-ontario-garbage-shipped-to-manila\/","title":{"rendered":"Filipinos call on Canada to \u2018repatriate\u2019 mountain of Ontario garbage shipped to Manila"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Facebook<\/a>
Facebook photo of one of fifty Canadian shipping containers filled with trash.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA – Philippine authorities demanded that Canada repatriate its junk \u201cexported\u201d to the Philippines in 50 Canadian shipping containers.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will not tolerate this matter sitting down. Pick up your garbage Canada, and show us the decency that we so rightfully deserve as a nation. My motherland is not a garbage bin of Canada,\u201d Leah Paquiz, a member of the Philippine House of Representatives, said in a statement last week.<\/p>\n

Philippine Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago has also called for an official government inquiry into the matter, even as the situation is raising a stink in various sectors of Philippine society.<\/p>\n

\u201cCanada pick up your garbage!!! Philippines is NOT a dumping soil of Canadian garbage!\u201d demands a petition signed, thus far by 25,000 individuals.<\/p>\n

The garbage was discovered some months ago, in Feburary, when the Philippine Bureau of Customs scrutinized 50 Canadian shipping containers supposedly containing \u201cscrap plastic materials for recycling.\u201d Instead, the containers were filled with household refuse, soggy paper, as well as soiled adult diapers.<\/p>\n

This discovery prompted officials to impound the shipment at Manila International Container Terminal, and to declare the goods as \u201cjunk materials [that] could pose biohazard risks.\u201d<\/p>\n

Customs officials said that the garbage was shipped by Chronic Inc., a plastics export company based in Whitby, Ontario, and owned by a certain Jim Makris.<\/p>\n

In a February interview the Toronto Star, Makris said, in reaction to the shipped garbage: \u201cIt\u2019s the stupidest thing I\u2019ve heard of in my entire life,\u201d adding that \u201canyone with a brain\u201d knows that it is less costly to simply dispose of the garbage in Canada than to ship it to a country across the Pacific Ocean.<\/p>\n

Makris also said that he had exported \u201cplastic for recycling\u201d and other such shipments on many other occasions, without any issues; but that this time, he said that the containers may have been filled with garbage as \u201cpunishment\u201d for his failure to meet the demands of a payoff.<\/p>\n

To this date, the garbage has not been removed by Chronic Inc., and their business phones have since been disconnected.<\/p>\n

The situation has ecological and environmental groups up in arms, as the containers have started leaking \u201cgarbage juice\u201d as a result of the decomposing trash.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, authorities estimate that the containers have cost the Philippine government over $1.5-million in storage fees at the already overcrowded and congested container terminal.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe condemn in the strongest possible terms this unabashed attempt to dump hazardous waste misrepresented as recyclable plastics into our country,\u201d Romy Hidalgo of EcoWaste Coalition told reporters from the Inquirer on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Citing the Basel Convention, a United Nations treaty on hazardous waste materials, the Philippines says that the containers are in clear violation of the stipulation that countries are obliged to repatriate any \u201cillegal traffic\u201d seized overseas.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Canadian foreign officials said that the repatriation of the trash has left them in a bind.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently there are no domestic laws which the Government of Canada could apply to compel the shipper to return his containers to Canada,\u201d the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade said in a statement to the National Post.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Government of Canada is working with the shipper and the Government of the Philippines to find a solution to this waste shipment in the Philippines, in accordance with our two countries\u2019 respective regulations and legislative frameworks,\u201d that statement added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  MANILA – Philippine authorities demanded that Canada repatriate its junk \u201cexported\u201d to the Philippines in 50 Canadian shipping containers. …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29131,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,1145,95],"tags":[8285,8282,8284,8283,8286,1112],"class_list":["post-29129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-headline","category-news-ph","tag-bereau-of-customs","tag-canadian-trash","tag-chronic-inc","tag-environmental-hazard","tag-manila-ports","tag-ontario","mauthors-angie-duarte","mauthors-philippine-canadian-inquirer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}