Iligan solon calls for Verde Soko closure

ILIGAN Rep. Frederick Siao over the weekend called on the government to shut down VNS Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp. even as he reiterated his call for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) to file a diplomatic protest in connection with the shipment of wastes to Misamis Oriental from South Korea.

“We want the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI), the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to shut down and seize all the assets of Verde Soko,” said Siao.

It was Siao who brought to the attention of the Lower House the controversial shipments in Misamis Oriental.

This paper learned of two shipments of wastes from South Korea — one at the private wharf at the Philippine Sinter Corp. in Villanueva, and another at the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.

“We want the DFA to tell the government of South Korea to conduct a thorough investigation of this shipment of garbage and to prevent any other similar shipments from being shipped to our country over again,” Siao said.

Verde Soko, the company behind the shipments, has explained that the 51 container vans of garbage were actually intended as raw materials to be recycled into pellets and briquettes. The finished products, it said, would be shipped back to South Korea and China.

The MICT customs collector however said that cannot be said, especially of the shipment in Tagoloan, because inspectors found foul-smelling and liquid-soaked garbage.

Siao said Verde Soko could have violated the Solid Waste Management, Customs Tariff and the international agreement known as Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous wastes and their disposal.

Siao said he was worried because the MICT serves Iligan City, Cagayan de Oro City and the rest of Northern Mindanao “for starters and onward to the rest of Mindanao.”

The shipment of the said garbage, according to the Bureau of Customs (BOC), entered the Philippines on July 24 this year, the biggest volume of waste that entered the country, so far, according to the lawmaker.

“As a representative of Iligan City, I say that the residents of Iligan City reject these 51 containers of garbage from South Korea,” Siao said.

In a statement, the South Korean government, through its embassy, said it already ordered an investigation into the exporter involved in the incident and stressed that it would take measures to have the garbage shipment brought back to South Korea as soon as possible. (Divina Suson of PNA)