THE CANADIAN GARBAGE MESS (UPDATE)
by Anton Antonio
July 29, 2015
“Strike while the iron is hot.”… is an adage the still
applies today. My late father even
added: “You can keep the iron hot by
striking it.” So how do we relate the
“iron” in these statements to our present situation?... the Canadian garbage
mess.
Most people are under the impression that the Canadian
garbage mess will be history and forgotten in no time. Perhaps they do not have the slightest idea
on the passion, commitment and resolve present-day pro-environment advocates
and activist have. Please read the
following news reports published just recently:
GROUP TAKES ILLEGAL CANADA GARBAGE ISSUE TO INTERNATIONAL
BODY
Manila, Philippines – If the Philippine and Canadian
governments won’t do anything about the illegal Canada waste being dumped into
Philippine landfills, perhaps and international body will. This is the hope of Philippine environmental
group BAN Toxics who has formally asked the international Basel Convention to
intervene. The international Basel
Action Network and BAN Toxics have submitted a formal letter to the Secretariat
of the Basel Convention to begin proceedings on Canada’s refusal to fulfil its
obligations to the Convention. Canada is
a signatory to the international agreement and is thus bound to its rules. The Basel Convention, to which 53 countries
are signatories, is an international treaty to control the movement of
hazardous waste between nations, specifically the transfer of hazardous waste
from developed to less developed countries.
“BAN and Ban Toxics, in their letter to Basel Convention Executive
Secretary Dr. Rolph Payet, assert that as household wastes are a Basel
Convention Annex II waste, Canada is bound to strictly control export,” reads a
press release sent on July 28. Asking
the Basel Convention Secretariat to intervene has been the suggestion of many
lawmakers, including former International Criminal Court judge senator Miriam
Defensor Santiago. Two years after the
first 50 container vans of Canada garbage arrives in the Manila port, the
Philippine government has agreed with Canada’s terms to dump the waste in local
sanitary landfills. Forty-eight more
container vans were found in the Manila port last May bringing the total number
of vans to 98. Environmentalists decided
to take matters into their own hands after being disappointed by government
action. “We know that the Philippine
government has been pressured by Canada not to put up a fuss. So our government is not going to file a non-compliance
brief,” said Ban Toxics Executive Director Richard Gutierrez. In their letter, the groups ask the
Secretariat to bring the case to a special committee within the Convention that
handles cases of non-compliance. Under
the treaty, only the governments of the countries involved and the Secretariat
can bring cases to the committee. IN the
Convention test, the Secretariat is mandated to “assist Parties upon request in
their identification of cases of illegal traffic and to circulate immediately
to the Parties concerned any information it has received regarding illegal
traffic.” “Cases like this require the
Secretariat to act,” said Gutierrez. “If
this gross non-compliance is simply swept under the carpet, the Basel
Convention and indeed all international laws becomes but a sad joke.” The issue has sparked outrage among other
nationals, not least Canadian citizens themselves. Jim Puckett, Executive Director of the US-based
Basel Action Network said, “Canada has admitted to us, that it has failed to
properly implement the Basel Convention.
This means that they are not in compliance and that has resulted in
significant economic and potential environmental harm to the Philippines.” Both the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources (DENR) and Canadian embassy insist the garbage is neither
toxic nor hazardous and thus not covered by the Convention. When the Bureau of Customs inspected some of
the container vans, they said they found mixed and unsorted plastic, household
garbage, and used adult diapers. The
container vans had been misdeclared as containing recyclable plastic scrap
materials, a crime under the Tariff and Customs Code of the Philippines and the
Toxic Substance and Hazardous Wastes and Nuclear Wastes Control Acts of
1990. But even if the garbage is not
hazardous, household waste still falls under Article 9 of the Convention which
deals with illegal traffic. “Any
transboundary movement of hazardous waste or other wastes… with consent
obtained from States concerned through falsification, misrepresentation or
fraud… shall be deemed to be illegal traffic,” reads the treaty. If the illegal traffic is due to the conduct
of the exporter, in this case Chronis Incorporated and Live Green Enterprises,
it is Canada’s responsibility to ensure the wastes are taken back by the two
firms “or, if necessary, by itself into the State of export” unless
“impracticable.” Article 4 also states
that the obligation to manage both hazardous and other wastes in an environmentally
sound manner “may not under any circumstances be transferred to the States of
import or transit.” The Philippine
government has files charges against the Philippine importer of the first 50
container vans. Canada has said it has
“no domestic or international authority” to compel Chronic Inc and Live Green
Enterprises to return the waste to Canada.
The contents of 26 container vans have already been dumped at the Metro
Clark Waste Management Corporation in Capas, Tarlac as of July 22, according to
BOC. Five are at the Manila International
Container Port while 16 are at the SBMA Port of Subic. The Tarlac provincial government ordered the
dumping to be stopped pending a local inquiry and more thorough study of the
garbage’s impact to health and environment.
Both houses of Congress have files resolutions to investigate the
issue. Senator Santiago opposes the
decision of the Philippine government to allow the dumping in its own soil
saying it “sets a dangerous precedent for other countries to dump their waste
in Philippine soil with impunity.” --- Rappler.com
US GROUP ASKS UNITED NATIONS TO FILE CASE VS CANADA FOR
DUMPING WASTE IN PHILIPPINES
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO (US) – Basel Action Network (BAN) based
in Seattle, Washington, on Monday asked the secretariat of the United Nations
on the Basel Convention to file a case against Canada following the dumping of
26 container vans of waste in a sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac. Jim Puckett, BAN executive director, proposed
legal action on behalf of its Philippine partner BAN Toxics, by filing an
official notification of noncompliance by Canada with the Basel Convention on
the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their
Disposal. The notice was contained in
Puckett’s July 27 letter to Dr. Rolph Payet, Basel Convention executive
secretary. The Philippines and Canada
signed the convention which was adopted on March 22, 1989, in Base,
Switzerland, and enforced beginning 1992.
The United Nations Environmental Program is a partner in implementing
the convention. The convention’s website
said the agreement was “in response to a public outcry following the discovery,
in the 1980s, in Africa and other parts of the developing world of deposits of
toxic wastes imported from abroad.” Puckett
said the convention is “at risk if we do not respond to one of the most
well-publicized, egregious and unresolved cases we have seen in recent
years.” “We ask that the secretariat
take up this case and utilize the mechanism [for promoting implementation and
compliance with the Basel Convention] as it was intended to be used,” he
said. The Bureau of Customs (BOC) seized
103 container vans that an importer, identified as Jim Makris, brought in
several batches since May 2013 because these were misdeclared to be containing
“scrap materials.” The container vans
were consigned to Valenzuela City-based Chronic Plastics. The Environmental Management Bureau (EMB)
reported three of 55 container vans to be packed with “municipal solid
wastes.” BOC was ordered by a Manila
Regional Trial Court in April to dispose of the wastes in 34 container vans and
return the empty vans to the owner, Zim, through its local agent, Le
Soleil. BOC chose to use the landfill of
the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC) in Sitio Kalangitan in Capas
town. Canadian Ambassador Neil Reeder
said in June 2014 that Canada had no domestic or international authority to
compel the shipper to return the shipment to his country. Also on Monday, Clark Development Corp.
(CDC), MCWMC and Tarlac Vice Gov. Enrique Cojuangco Jr. turned down the
proposal of Gov. Victor Yap to pay P1 million to MCWMC to remove the Canadian
trash in the landfill and return these to BOC.
“Talks about donation or payment is immaterial, to say the least,
because [the Tarlac provincial government] has prohibited the disposal of
foreign wastes,” said Arthur Tugade, CDC president and chief executive
officer. CDC, tasked by law to convert
Clark, a former United States military air base, into civilian use, owns the
property where Kalangitan landfill operates.
Yap offered to pay P1 million in a letter to Tugade on July 22. Tugade said Tarlac officials and residents
need not worry about further dumping of Canadian trash because MCWMC had
installed additional duplicate locks on eight container vans that BOC delivered
on July 15. BOC had not sent more
containers. Rufo Colayco, MCWMC
president and chief executive officer, said Yap’s offer was unnecessary. “Maraming salamat ho (Thank you). We are not after the money. What is important is we do what is right and
that means agreeing to the request of BOC to dispose of the garbage and
disinfect the container [vans],” he said.
“We respect the decision of Tarlac officials not to accept wastes of
foreign origin,” he added. Cojuangco
disagreed with paying MCWMC. “I think
it’s wrong to be paying them when we should be suing parties involved. The Senate should investigate the incident
[because] the violations [are] greater than the realm of local government
scope,” he said. --- Inquirer.net
“Ningas cogon” is the pervasive rot that weakens Filipino
resolve. “Ningas cogon” is defined as
the attitude when something is started with interest and enthusiasm, then after
a very short time, interest is suddenly lost leaving things incomplete or
unfinished; like a cogon grass fire burning out quickly. I just hope and pray that this will not be
the fate of the Canadian garbage mess.
Just my
little thoughts…
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