By JOEY NACALABAN
and NITZ ARANCON
Correspondents .
REP. Juliette Uy of the 2nd District of Misamis Oriental yesterday said the shipment of 5,100 tons of “hazardous garbage” in Tagoloan town was just the “tip of the iceberg” and could result in an investigation into the alleged use of the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) as an entry point for smuggled contraband in this part of the country.
In a statement sent to this paper, Uy said the Tagoloan port has also been used to smuggle in rice and cigarettes, among others.
Her husband Julio, a former vice governor of the province and ex-mayor of Villanueva town, earlier said he was worried that the area was also being used by drug traffickers.
“These smugglers, I suspect, (are) a highly organized syndicate. And this must stop,” said Rep. Uy.
She called on the Lower House to investigate not only the July shipment of garbage from South Korea but also the alleged smuggling operations in the MICT.
Meanwhile, the Bureau of Customs (BOC) here said it would go after the people, including officials, responsible for the controversial shipment from South Korea.
Customs district collector Floro Calixihan said a warrant of seizure and detention has already been issued covering the shipment that was found in Tagoloan.
Calixihan said the BOC would schedule a hearing, and officials involved, including executives of Verde Soko, would be summoned.
The BOC, he said, would also ask the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and some customs officials to answer some questions about the controversial shipment.
Calixihan said initial investigation showed that two inspectors from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources gave the green light for the release of the shipment during a “boarding inspection.”
Calixihan said the materials imported by Verde Soko were “misdeclared” as “plastic synthetic flakes.”
Calixihan said the company has yet to secure an import permit.
He said they have already summoned the Verde Soko management for a hearing, in which the Customs will give the company the chance to respond to the alleged violations.
Neil Alburo, president of Verde Soko, earlier said the shipment contained discarded plastics that are raw materials for its recycling facility. He denied that these were garbage, adding these were ready for processing.
The plastics, he said, are to be recycled into pellets and briquettes which will be shipped back to South Korea and China to be made into plastic furniture and other items. Soft plastics refer to plastic grocery bags and other light materials made of the same material.
Alburo clarified that they have complied with all the requirements set by the PIA before they were allowed to set up shop inside the economic zone.
In July, Alburo’s company received more than five metric tons of plastic materials from South Korea at the Mindanao Container Terminal sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. Last month, 51 container vans with the same content arrived from the same country.
Alburo assured that their operations will be pollution-free and will not harm the environment and the people living nearby.
Dax Jara, PIA safety specialist, said they have cleared Verde Soko to operate a recycling facility within the Phividec Industrial Estate complex in June this year.
Jara added that the PIA and Verde Soko had signed a memorandum of understanding in June allowing the processing of plastic materials inside the ecozone.
Jara noted that the company has been granted an Environment Compliance Certificate (ECC) issued by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB), an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR).
Based on submitted documents, Jara said EMB granted Verde Soko an ECC on July 6, 2018 for the proposed plastic pellet processing, plastic briquette processing, and a 300-kilowatt thermal power supply project.
According to a 2015 report on plastic pollution by Ocean Conservancy and McKinsey for Business and Environment, the Philippines ranked third as the world’s source of plastic pollution.
The company’s imported raw materials, however, are still under the custody of the BOC-10, pending compliance of two alleged violations Verde Soko has reportedly committed. (with reports from PNA)
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