Group to govt: Don’t blink or handle Korean trash with kid gloves

AN advocacy group yesterday called on the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Environment Management Bureau (EMB) to conduct a no-nonsense investigation and build strong cases against those responsible for the shipment of garbage from South Korea to Misamis Oriental.

In a statement sent to this paper, the group Pinoy Aksyon on Governance and the Environment (Pinoy Aksyon) said the issue should serve as a litmus test to the Bureau of Customs which has been wracked by controversies.

“Correct actions of the BOC on the Korean trash that ended up in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental could regain people’s trust in the agency,” said Bencyrus Ellorin, chairperson of Pinoy Aksyon, and former spokesperson of the local group Task Force Macajalar.

The same goes for the Environmental Management Bureau of the DENR, he said.

The group, he said, is aghast by what it called as “palusot” by the consignee of the controversial shipments that what it imported were raw materials.

“Even grade schoolers would understand that in manufacturing, you only import raw materials that are not available in the domestic market,” he said.

Ellorin said shredded laminated plastics which VNS Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp. showed as imported raw materials for plastic pellets is abundant in the country.

He said RA 9003 or the solid waste management law mandates the recycling of these materials usually used as satchets of shampoos and an array of instant drinks.

Part of the group’s statement reads: “What makes matters worse is the mixing of other wastes to these plastics. Obviously, the plastic flakes were just used as front of the blatantly illegal importation of toxic wastes which is prohibited by Philippine laws and the Basel Convention.”

The justification, it said, is “misleading, palusot and illegal,” pointing out that the Solid Waste Management Act requires recycling of domestic wastes, not imported.

Pinoy Aksyon urged the BOC and the EMB not to fall to what it called as “the strong lobby and public relations offensive” of employing fake NGOs by the importers of the illegal trash and their cohorts.

“Congress too should pursue its investigation based on the privilege speech of Iligan City congressman Siao,” it said.

Pinoy Aksyon said Rep. Juliette Uy of the province’s 2nd District should also take a more prominent role as it happened “right in her doorsteps.”

The group saod all government offices should “stop using kid gloves to once and for all bring to justice the people behind this crime.”

Pinoy Aksyon is an independent advocacy and think tank. The group aspires to provide platform for citizens to keep pace with the unfolding of history through critical dialogue.

Among the current campaigns of Pinoy Aksyon are the reforms in the party-list system. It has also called out on the Department of Energy and Bureau of Fire Protection to check on widespread unsafe practices in the LPG industry.