Senator Aquilino Pimentel 3rd yesterday urged the Bureau of Customs (BoC) to file charges against those behind the entry of “foreign trash” through misdeclaration of cargo.
The senator said the repeated dumping of foreign garbage into the Philippines was an affront to the country’s dignity.
“We’re not someone else’s dumping ground. The Philippines should assert its dignity and co-equal standing as a sovereign state in the community of nations,” Pimentel said.
“We should not be seen as a recipient, officially or unofficially, of waste material coming from other countries.”
The Philippine government is set to return some 6,500 tonnes of waste from South Korea that were dumped in Mindanao.
The South Korean government has committed to take back the trash after an agreement was reached at a bilateral meeting between Filipino and Korean authorities on December 27 and December 28 last year.
According to officials of the Mindanao International Container Port, the waste materials will be returned to South Korea on January 9.
The consignee, Verde Soko Industrial Corporation, had falsely reported that the container vans carried soft plastic and not garbage.
“We are thankful to the South Korean government for its commitment to resolve this matter and take back the misdeclared shipment,” Pimentel said.
“Let’s ensure that this brazen act is not tolerated and, in fact, punished to the fullest extent of the law, particularly our Tariff and Customs Code and possibly the Toxic Substance and Hazardous Wastes and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990,” he said.
Pimentel said he will seek an update on waste materials from Canada that were dumped in the country in 2013.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised to resolve the matter when he attended the 31st Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Manila in November 2017.
“There’s been no follow through ever since. We need immediate and concrete action on this,” Pimentel said.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel.
