By CONG B. CORRALES
Associate Editor .
ENVIRONMENTALISTS continued to express indignation over the shipment of garbage from South Korea to Tagoloan town.
The environmental watchdog Ban Toxics decried the shipment of plastic garbage from Pyongteak, South Korea, to Misamis Oriental, calling it a clear violationof the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal.
Ban Toxics, an environmental organization advocating for environmental justice, said, “This incident clearly violates the environmental rights of our fellow Filipinos in Tagaloan, Misamis Oriental as they are exposed to potentially hazardous wastes from a foreign country.”
Ban Toxics campaigns and advocacy specialist Anna Kapunan said, “Clearly, this is a violation of Basel Convention. First, the shipment contained mixed wastes; secondly, it was misdeclared, and third, it was mixed with e-waste.”
Kapunan said the alleged misinformation by the shipment’s consignee, VNS Verde Sokor Philippines Industrial Corp., was equally appalling.
“We demand accountability from Verde Sokor and the Philippine government authorities who may have consented to the consignment of the wastes in Misamis Oriental,” Ban Toxics’ statement reads in part.
Ban Toxics has been at the forefront of the problem of importation of garbage from rich countries to the Philippines.
“As with our response to Canada’s waste, we likewise strongly call for the shipment’s return to South Korea,” it said.
At the South Korean Embassy in Taguig City yesterday, the group EcoWaste Coalition staged a demonstration and demanded that the garbage shipment discovered in Tagoloan be returned immediately to South Korea.
Another group, Cagayan de Oro-based Pinoy Aksyon for Governance and the Environment (Page) demanded that the garbage be shipped back to South Korea.
“If indeed these are hazardous wastes, this is covered by the Basel Convention. Return immediately to (South) Korea,” said Page chairman Bencyrus Ellorin.
The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal or “Basel Convention” is an agreement designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries.
Ellorin said the country is already facing a serious problem with solid waste management, specifically plastics, that the shipment of garbage from another country is an added environmental headache.
“Ngano wa diay tay problema sa plastic dire?” Ellorin rhetorically asked.
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