Officials of the Bureau of Customs inspect container vans of household wastes in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental in this undated file photo provided by Misamis Oriental provincial board member Gerardo Sabal.
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By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent . 

ONLY 22 percent of the controversial trash shipped to Misamis Oriental from South Korea last year would likely be sent back to its port of origin in Pyeongtaek next week, provincial board member Gerardo Sabal said on Thursday.

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Sabal’s revelation came even as Customs officials confirmed this week that the tons of wastes and shredded plastics shipped to Misamis Oriental on two occasions via a private port in Villanueva and the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Tagoloan would be sent back to the port of origin in South Korea on Wednesday.

But Sabal said only 1,400 tons of the 6,500 tons of garbage from South Korea could be shipped back from Misamis Oriental.

Sabal said much of the wastes were already scattered at the compound of the VNS Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp., the consignee, within the compound of the Phividec Industrial Estate in Tagoloan.

A statement issued by EcoWaste Coalition on Wednesday said the decision to send back the garbage came after a bilateral meeting with South Korean and Philippine officials in Tagoloan last week.

“We expect the 51 garbage-filled containers stored at MICT to be homebound by January 9 provided that all regulatory requirements are readily available,” said John Simon, the Bureau of Customs’s port collector at MICT, told reporters in Manila.

The 51 container vans were the second controversial shipment to arrive in Misamis Oriental in August last year.

The first and bigger shipment of 5,100 tons arrived last July 21. The order to ship back garbage to South Korea does not cover this bigger shipment, according to Sabal.

Simon said they found that the shipment consignee, Verde Soko, failed to secure proper import permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and misdeclared the garbage shipments as “plastic synthetic flakes.”

The dumping of alleged wastes caused an uproar among residents in Misamis Oriental and environmentalists.

The Tagoloan Municipal Council has passed a resolution strongly condemning the importation of plastic mixed with hazardous waste materials from South Korea.

The Misamis Oriental provincial board passed a resolution on Nov. 15, 2018 asking Congress to investigate the alleged dumping.

“How come the shipment was offloaded when the consignee had no import license?” Sabal asked.

He said the first shipment of 5,100 tons placed inside “one-ton white canvas bags” arrived in July 21 last year.

He said the bags were brought to the four-hectare facility of Verde Soko in Sitio Buguac, Barangay Santa Cruz, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

A month later, Sabal said, another 51 container vans arrived and also brought to their facility.

“But their workers were careless. They left the garbage spilled on the roads and the river in Tagoloan, alarming the residents,” Sabal said.

He said the local government conducted an investigation after residents reported it to authorities.

Sabal said when they inspected the facility they found bundles of garbage and trash-like wood, dextrose tubes, used diapers, batteries, and metals.

“It was so smelly when we opened the vans and the bags. There was dirty sludge oozing from the container vans and bags,” he said.

EcoWaste national coordinator Aileen Lucero said they found it outrageous that the shipments were able to enter the ports of the Philippines.

“We look ahead to the imminent return of the Korean mixed garbage shipments to their source,” Lucero said.

Engr. Neil Alburo, president of Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp., denied that the shipments were garbage.

He said the shipments were raw and sheared materials from South Korea intended for the manufacturing of plastic pellets and bricks at the firm’s newly built recycling plant.

He said the firm is also willing to have the waste materials shipped back to its origin if told to do so.

Sabal said that the $47,000 cost of shipping the 1,400 tons of garbage back to Korea will be shouldered by the South Korean government. But he said that succeeding shipments would still be an issue as the South Korean government is demanding that Verde Soko will have to pay, too.

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