The Canadian Garbage Mess (Update No. 5)

THE CANADIAN GARBAGE MESS (Update No. 5)

By Anton Antonio

September 23, 2015

On April 25, 2014, I published (on my blogsite and Facebook page) an article on the Canadian garbage mess starting with the article titled: “Dear Canada, We Don’t Need Your Garbage”.  Since then, I have written several blogs on researched materials on the same issue to keep track of this environmental problem.  This is being done on the belief that if the flow of information on public interest issues stops, the issue slowly dies and is forgotten… And this is exactly how bad people get away with crimes.  Besides, this is what true environmentalism is all about.  Here are more of these researched materials.  Please read…

“TARLAC GUV OFFERS CONTRACTOR P1-M TO STOP DUMPING CANADIAN TRASH

Just stop the further dumping of Canadian waste in Capas, Tarlac, Governor Victor Yap offered to pay the garbage contractor P1 million.  The amount is reportedly to make up for the loss incurred by Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC), which was contracted to dispose the imported waste from Canada.  Yap made the offer in a July 22 letter to Clark Development Corp. (CDC), the owner of the land in Sitio Kalangitan, Barangay Cutcut II in Capas, according to an Inquirer story.  The governor has since prohibited the disposal of the remaining trash to the landfill.  In a July 16 hearing initiated by the provincial board, MCWMC president and chief executive officer Rufo Colayco said his company was not completing the disposal contract by sending back the eight container vans delivered there on July 15 and refusing to accept 21 more vans.  He said the contract cost his company about P1 million.  “Since Mr. Colayco has told the (provincial board) that the contract to accept 55 containers of trash is P1 million, I propose to pay the same to MCWMC, the (environmental Management Bureau) and the (Bureau of Customs), and help ship out this garbage from the province of Tarlac,” Yap said in a July 22 letter to CDC president Arthur Tugade.  Yap said the amount is going to be taken from funds intended for emergency expenditures in the provincial budget with the provincial board’s approval.  The same letter was transmitted to MCWMC but Colayco declines to comment on the governor’s proposal, saying he had not received the letter yet.  The amount Yap offered is equivalent to the P1 million disposal contract that was charged to the shipping company, Le Soleil, local representative of international firm Zim, which owns the 55 containers.  To stop new attempts to dispose of the garbage in Tarlac, Yap also signed two provincial board resolutions that barred the Capas landfill and other parts of Tarlac from receiving foreign wastes.  Resolution No. 056-2015 sought the “immediate rescission or cancellation of the contract between the BOC (Bureau of Customs) and MCWMC relative to the dumping of the garbage from Canada in Kalangitan sanitary landfill in Capas, Tarlac.”  Resolution No. 057-2015 banned the dumping of any garbage from foreign origin in the Kalangitan sanitary landfill and elsewhere in Tarlac.  Vice Gov. Enrique Cojuangco, Jr. defended the provincial government’s actions.  “Any Filipino should and would do what we did.  Let’s keep it simple – it’s just wrong to allow waste or garbage of foreign origin, be it toxic or nontoxic, to be dumped anywhere in the Philippines,” Cojuangco said.  Colayco said MCWMC accepted the trash because the Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources certified these to be “Municipal solid wastes.” --- Luzon Politics

“TARLAC DEMANDS CANCELLATION OF BOC’S GARBAGE DEAL ON CANADIAN WASTE

After being used as a dumping ground of imported waste from Canada, the provincial board of Tarlac is now demanding the cancellation of contract entered into by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) and the Metro Clark Waste Management Corporation (MCWMC).  Vice Governor Enrique Cojuangco, Jr. said the board unanimously passed Resolution 056-2015 “demanding for the immediate rescission/cancellation of the contract between the BOC and the MCWMC relative to the dumping of the garbage from Canada in the Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill in Capas, Tarlac.”  With the contract cancelled, MCWMC can no longer dump any imported garbage at the Capas facility, Cojuangco said.  The Board, according to Cojuangco, stressed that there is an urgent need to formally demand from the concerned parties the stoppage of the dumping of the Canadian garbage in the sanitary landfill.  The resolution also stated that “the dumping of the garbage from Canada in Kalangitan Sanitary Landfill is in violation of the authority granted by the Sanggunian Panlalawigan in its Resolution 023-2002 and Resolution 108-2003, to which the Clark Development Corporation, as owner of the sanitary landfill agreed and confirmed.”  MCWMC President Rufo Colayco admitted to the provincial board that they have entered a contract with the BOC to use the Capas landfill as disposal area for the Canadian waste that have been sitting at the Manila Port Area since 2013.  Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines Neil Reeder, in a press conference in Iloilo City assured that the garbage, which were stuffed inside container vans, are not toxic wastes.  He said the Canadian Embassy, in cooperation with the Philippine government, is looking for solutions on how to dispose these waste materials.  He added that the Canadian government does not have a legislation to enforce the shipment back to Canada.” --- Luzon Politics

In my previous articles on this Canadian garbage mess, I already came up with a rejoinder on the statements of the Canadian Ambassador… which are not too nice.  I would no longer wish to add more.

I would not want to pass any kind of judgment on the propriety of the P1 million offer from the provincial Governor of Tarlac for the CDC or MCWMC to take back the Canadian garbage… back to “where” is also not clear.  Although I am sincerely having a hard time squaring up to the rhyme and reason for this, I am certain the Governor has good reasons for choosing this management prerogative. We should be glad, however, that Vice Governor Kit Cojuangco took a more definitive stance in not allowing the further dumping of the Canadian garbage anywhere in the province of Tarlac… or the Philippines for that matter. 

The position of Vice Governor Kit Cojuangco reminds me of the “NIMBY” Syndrome… “Not In My Back Yard”.  (For more information on the “NIMBY Syndrome”, please refer to the links below.)  It also reminds me that, on July 24, 2015, I wrote:  “The ideal mindset should be NO DUMPING OF GARBAGE IN PHILIPPINES with the remedy of DUMPING THE GARBAGE BACK TO CANADA… it’s their garbage anyway.  If we, Filipinos, cannot embrace this mindset, we will condemn ourselves to the pitfall of the NIMBY Syndrome.”  Vice Governor Kit thinks like a nationalist and an environmentalist… and the many Filipino environmental advocates definitely agree with him.  There really is no other way to resolve the Canadian garbage mess.

Thoughts to promote positive action…

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REFERENCE:

Antonio, A.C., (2014). “Dear Canada, We Don’t Need Your Garbage”.  Retrieved on September 23, 2015 from http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/04/dear-canada-we-dont-need-your-garbage.html

Antonio, A.C., (2014). “The NIMBY Syndrome”.  Retrieved on September 23, 2015 from http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-nimby-syndrome.html

Antonio, A.C., (2015). “The Pitfall of the NIMBY Syndrome”.  Retrieved on September 23, 2015 from http://antonantonio.blogspot.com/2015/07/the-pitfall-of-nimby-syndrome.html

www.luzon,politics.com.ph, (2015). “Tarlac Guv Offers Contractor P1-M to Stop Dumping Canadian Trash”.  Retrieved on September 23, 2015 from http://www.luzon.politics.com.ph/2015/07/27/tarlac-guv-offers-contractor-p1-m-to-stop-dumping-canadian-trash/

www.luzon,politics.com.ph, (2015). “Tarlac Demands Cancellation of BOCs Garbage Deal on Canadian Waste”.  Retrieved on September 23, 2015 from http://www.luzon.politics.com.ph/2015/07/25/tarlac-demands-cancellation-of-bocs-garbage-deal-on-canadian-waste/