Execs behind trash will be unmasked: Uy

By NITZ ARANCON
Correspondent
and FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent

CONGRESSMEN are determined to unmask government officials involved in what Misamis Oriental 2nd District Rep. Juliette Uy called as a “big conspiracy” to sneak in tons of South Korean trash into the country.

Uy vowed that officials found to have turned a blind eye to the controversial shipments of wastes would be held to account for the violation.

She said this as officials sent back 51 container vans full of wastes back to its port of origin in Pyeongtaek, South Korea on Sunday, following six months of negotiations.

Uy said many congressmen suspect that money changed hands, and that government officials were involved.

“It is a big conspiracy [involving] some government  officials, including Phividec,” Uy said.

She said the alleged conspiracy involved people in the Bureau of Customs, local officials and other government agencies.

“This port is under the supervision of the Bureau of Customs. How was it able to pass through under their watch?” Uy asked rhetorically.

She confirmed that the National Bureau of Investigation is conducting a separate investigation to determine the criminal liability of Verde Soko and possible involvement of Customs officials.

Uy said congressmen who would investigate the controversial shipments would conduct an inspection at the Phividec recycling plant of VNS Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp. in Sta. Cruz, Tagoloan town where the first and bigger shipment of wastes have been brought.

“Hopefully, Phividec will join our inspection,” she said.

Officials of the Phividec Industrial Authority have not been cooperating with provincial government officials looking into the controversial shipments. None of them have attended provincial board inquiries into the garbage shipments.

Lawyer Abbas Lao of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Northern Mindanao said their findings indicated that the wastes are hazardous and pose major health risks to the villagers of Sitio Buguac in Sta. Cruz, Tagoloan.

Lao said Verde Soko also did not have import permits for the shipment from the Philippine and South Korean governments.

The group Pinoy Aksyon for Governance and the Environment (Pinoy Aksyon) welcomed the return of the 51 container vans with guarded optimism, pointing out that it is only some 22 percent of the wastes brought into Tagoloan.

Bencyrus Ellorin, the group’s chairperson, said his group was “grateful” to the customs bureau and the South Korean governnent for the partial return of Korean wastes.

“We however view this development with guarded optimism as the wastes ceremonially shipped back to Korea… only represents 22 percent of the illegal wastes from Korea. Seventy-eight percent is left behind at the Verde Soko facility in Sitio Buguak, Sta. Cruz, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental,” Ellorin said. “We reiterate our call for the full return of the illegal Korean wastes and in bringing to court those responsible for the crime.”

Bureau of Customs port collector John Simon said the container vans were loaded aboard M/V Kalliroe of Maerks Shipping at the expense of the South Korean government, a move based on the Basel Convention international treaty.

The Philippines and South Korea are signatories of the Basel Convention international treaty on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal designed to prevent the transfer of wastes from developed countries to less developed countries.

Simon said the return was a result of series of meetings that culminated in Cagayan de Oro on Dec. 26 and Dec. 27, 2018.

He said the South Korean government agreed to shoulder the US$47,000 cost of shipping the container vans to the port of Pyeongtek.

Simon said the South Korean government also agreed to shoulder the shipping costs of the 5,100 tons remaining wastes in Tagoloan town, Misamis Oriental.

“This is a great environmental victory for the Filipino people and the Philippine government,” Simon said.

Customs and local officials witnessed the loading of container vans to the M/V Kalliroe at the Mindanao International Container Terminal.

Activists from the EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental watchdog, staged a rally inside the container terminal, brandishing placards with slogans like “We are not a garbage can for Korean wastes” and “Do not transfer Korean waste to the Philippines!”

“Sending the garbage back to its origin is only just, moral and lawful,” EcoWaste Coalition national coordinator Aileen Lucero said.

Angelica Carballo Pago of Greenpeace Southeast Asia said in a statement they hope that the “repatriation of the South Korean waste would inspire a similar action to finally address the Canadian waste dumped in the Philippines.

Pago said the repatriation sends a strong signal to developed countries that less developed countries or LDCs like the Philippines are fighting back.

Some 100 container vans of garbage arrived at the port of Manila from Canada last 2013 and remained there despite appeals made to the Canadian government, also a signator of the Basel Convention.

The household wastes in Tagloan town came in two shipments in July and August last year.

The first shipment of 5,100 tons arrived last July 21 and was immediately to the four-hectare facility of the shipper Verde Soko in Sitio Buguac, Barangay Santa Cruz, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

The second shipment of 51 container vans loaded with 1,400 tons of household wastes arrived in the second week of August last year and was also brought to the same facility.

The shipment caused an uproar among local government officials after residents of Sitio Buguac started complaining of foul smell from the facility.

Officials from the shipper Verde Soko, a Cebu-based firm, said the household wastes were reusable plastic wastes for their use in their recycling factory in Buguac, Sta Cruz, Tagoloan town.