By FROILAN GALLARDO
Special Correspondent

TAGOLOAN, Misamis Oriental -After the party of government officials, environmentalists and media left facility of the shipper, Verde Soko, in Sitio Buguac, Barangay Santa Cruz in Tagoloan last Sunday, several children came out from the bushes to rummage the bags of household wastes and plastic shreds.

They have been hiding in the bushes to avoid being arrested for picking the highly toxic wastes scattered left openly in the four-hectare facility.

Thirteen-year-old Jesmar Nabong and five other boys, ages 10 to 12 years old, were about to pick the garbage when they saw a group of journalists approaching them.

Nabong and the other children ran immediately thinking the journalists were policemen out to arrest them.

It took a while to convince Nabong and his friends to come out from the bushes but when they did, they told a story of how the garbage provided them money to buy school supplies and food for their families.

“We come here after classes every day. We come here on Saturdays and Sundays,” he said.

He said other children from Sitio Buguac also came here after classes to also pick on the garbage left in the open at the facility of Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corporation.

“There is so much garbage left here in the open and many my neighbors come here every afternoon,” Nabong said.

Ports Collector John Simon said more than 2,700 tons of garbage from South Korea remain at the yard of Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corporation in Sitio Bucuag.

Simon said they are hopeful that all the remaining garbage will be shipped this coming Feb 9.

On Sunday, Jan. 19, some 2,400 metric tons of household wastes and plastic shreds were prepared to be shipped back to Pyeongtaek in South Korea.

Simon said the South Korean government paid P10 million for the Maersk MV L8H Nordmarsh to load the garbage in 60 container vans back to Pyeongtaek, its port of origin.

He said The South Korean government also paid US$47,000 for the first shipment of 51 container vans in January 2019 in accordance to the Basel Convention.

Despite the two shipments Simon said a considerable volume of garbage is left behind at the facility of Verde Soko in Sitio Buguac.

Simon said they are hopeful all of the garbage will be return back to South Korea in the final shipment scheduled this coming Feb. 9.

Tagoloan Mayor Gomer Sabio said the town government is paying around 50 people to put the garbage in big chutes so they can be loaded into the container vans for shipment.

Sabio said they the people they hired P100 a day for the job.

“The problem is that most of the garbage are laid out in the open exposed to the elements,” Sabio said.

Sabio said they have detailed a small team of policemen at the facility to drive away scavengers.

Nabong said the policemen however rarely go out from their station at the front gate of the facility to check on trespassers.

“When we see they are not watching we enter and look at the garbage,” Nabong said.

Nabong said they looked for plastics and if they are lucky, precious metals like bronze from electrical wires

A small bag of plastic shreds, Nabong said can fetch P24 enough to buy them school supplies and snacks.

Nabong said metals like bronze fetch P200 a kilo and his friends hoard it to be sold later.

“We hoard the metal together and sell it. Sometimes we get P2,000 for it,” Nabong said.

He said if they hit it big, they would buy rice for their family.

Nabong said their family knew they are scavenging the garbage but tolerate them because they are too poor to buy school supplies.

“We come here to pick on the garbage every afternoon after our classes,” Nabong said.

Nabong said so far they have not encountered serious health problems from rummaging through the garbage.

“Just be careful not to pick on that yellow filter on the garbage heap. It will burn your skin,” Nabong said.

What Nabong pointed was a discarded insulation filter that when in contact with plastic or fiberglass cause skin, eye, and respiratory irritations.

Nabong said when they touch the yellow fiber they experience skin irritation and only when they take a bath can the itch disappear.