{"id":53188,"date":"2015-06-26T01:17:19","date_gmt":"2015-06-25T17:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=53188"},"modified":"2015-06-26T01:17:19","modified_gmt":"2015-06-25T17:17:19","slug":"boc-emb-push-to-reveal-content-of-abandoned-garbage-shipments-from-canada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2015\/06\/26\/boc-emb-push-to-reveal-content-of-abandoned-garbage-shipments-from-canada\/","title":{"rendered":"BOC, EMB push to reveal content of abandoned garbage shipments from Canada"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A container van full of garbage shipped from Canada (Photo courtesy of Change.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

QUEZON CITY — An environmental coalition has requested the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to publicly release the data gathered through a government study regarding the content of some 48 abandoned shipping containers loaded with garbage from Canada.<\/p>\n

The EcoWaste Coalition, a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization promoting chemical safety, zero waste and the people\u2019s right to know and right to participate in the conduct of public affairs, asked for full data disclosure through a common letter sent today to the BOC Commissioner Alberto Lina and EMB Director Jonas Leones.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn keeping with our watchdog role as a public interest environmental NGO, we respectfully request the BOC and EMB to disclose the results of the waste analysis and characterization study (WACS) conducted last June 19 on 16 of the 48 unclaimed shipping containers of Canadian garbage now lying in Subic Port,\u201d said Aileen Lucero, Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition.<\/p>\n

The \u201cplastic scraps\u201d were imported from Canada by Live Green Enterprise, based out of San Fernando City in Pampanga, without prior importation clearance as confirmed by EMB. The consignments arrived in four batches between December 2013 to January 2014 and had since then left unclaimed.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe immediate disclosure of the WACS results, along with the photographs taken, will remove the veil of secrecy surrounding the study, which was conducted without the civil society and the media being informed and invited to observe the activity,\u201d Lucero said.<\/p>\n

The EcoWaste Coalition had previously suggested to BOC that such inspection be conducted in a transparent way.<\/p>\n

BOC Commissioner Lina had earlier written to the EcoWaste Coalition expressing that \u201cthe BOC appreciates (the group\u2019s) efforts to helping and supporting the Philippine government, particularly the Bureau, in battling the illegal trade of hazardous wastes.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lina assured that \u201cthis administration remains committed in curtailing the illegal importations of these articles and that our ports will continue to be vigilant in monitoring all shipments coming in to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAs the Philippines is not a dumpsite for residual wastes masked as \u2018plastic scraps\u2019 for recycling, we urge both the BOC and the EMB to push for the immediate return of the botched garbage shipments for environmentally-sound disposal in Canada,\u201d Lucero stated, reiterating a demand that is also shared by concerned environmental, labor, church and party-list groups.<\/p>\n

The EcoWaste Coalition had rejected the disposal of the illegal garbage shipments in a landfill facility in Capas, Tarlac, describing it as \u201ca brazen travesty of environmental justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAllowing the landfilling of Canadian garbage into our soil would send a very wrong and dangerous signal to waste traders that the Philippines, despite the legal restrictions, is an open place where the refuse of affluent societies masked as \u2018plastic scraps\u2019 can be sent for disposal,\u201d the EcoWaste Coalition told BOC and EMB.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need not belabor the fact that our country is already producing too much domestic waste, which is projected to increase from 38,757 tons per day in 2014 to 39,422 tons per day in 2015, and that our landfills, rightly described as ‘glorified dumpsites’ by critics, are bursting at the seams,\u201d the group emphasized.<\/p>\n

What Pope Francis said in his encyclical letter \u201cLaudato Si\u201d that \u201cthe earth, our home, is beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth\u201d resonates 100% in what is happening in our country today and that \u201cpermitting Canadian garbage to get disposed of locally would only aggravate the filthiness we find ourselves in,\u201d the group noted.<\/p>\n

In their letter to the BOC and EMB, the EcoWaste Coalition called upon the government to determinedly exhaust all means to compel Canada to take back their trash.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis (the return of Canada\u2019s trash) will demonstrate that our government means business when it comes to protecting the public health and the environment from illegal waste trade, and that garbage smugglers cannot get away with their criminal act with a mere slap on the wrist,\u201d the group said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

QUEZON CITY — An environmental coalition has requested the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) to …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":45844,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-53188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-news-ph","mauthors-philippines-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53188","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=53188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53188\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45844"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}