MetroVanIndependent.com
August 2015
9
News
PH to file diplomatic protest vs Canada over trash
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA)
said on Thursday it would file a diplomatic
protest with the Canadian government over
the container vans of garbage shipped to
the Philippines two years ago.
It asked the Department of Environment
and Natural Resources (DENR) and the
Bureau of Customs (BOC) to provide it
with documents to support the diplomatic
protest.
“[We will] underscore the Philippine
government’s position on the issue and
reiterate our request that the Canadian
government take appropriate action,”
said Assistant Secretary Charles Jose,
the DFA spokesperson, when asked in a
news briefing what the diplomatic protest
through a note verbale would contain.
The DENR and BOC asked the DFA in a
joint letter dated July 27 to file a diplomatic
protest with the Canadian Embassy in
order to avoid “a repeat of the unfortunate
incident and enjoin the government of
Canada to revisit their domestic regulations
on the export or illegal traffic in waste.”
In a reply on July 29, Jose said the DFA
asked for certain “technical” information
and documents from the DENR and BOC
to back its note verbale to the Canadian
Embassy.
“As soon as we receive the information
and documents from the DENR and BOC,
we will relay a third diplomatic note to the
Canadian Embassy,” he said.
Jose disclosed that the DFA had
previously sent two diplomatic notes about
the waste to the Canadian Embassy.
Asked if the two notes were diplomatic
protests, Jose said: “They expressed
objection to the shipments.”
In the earlier notes, the Philippines
asked the Canadian government to assist
The Canadian Embassy in a previous statement said Canada had
no domestic laws to compel the
shipper to take the containers
back.
with the re-export of the container vans to
Canada.
Jose, however, ducked questions on
Philippine efforts to raise the waste issue
with the secretariat of the Basel Convention
on the Control of Tr a nsb ounda r y
Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their
Disposal, to which both the Philippines and
Canada are signatories.
He said any questions on this should be
directed to the DENR, which is the “focal
point of the convention.”
“If they decide to file a case, we will
assist (the DENR). But the decision will
come from the DENR,” Jose said.
The DENR had decided to dispose of
the waste in a sanitary landfill in Tarlac,
pointing out that the trash was residual
and municipal solid waste and was not
hazardous or toxic.
The Canadian Embassy in a previous
statement said Canada had no domestic
laws to compel the shipper to take the
containers back.
Meanwhile, customs officials on Friday
filed smuggling charges against the
importer of 48 45-foot container vans filled
with garbage from Canada.
Charged in the Department of Justice
(DOJ) was Nelson Manio, proprietor of
Live Green Enterprises, for the unlawful
importation of waste that had been
misdeclared as “plastic scraps” from
Vancouver, Canada.
Container filled with waste.
The BOC said that under the law,
only homogeneous plastic scrap was
allowed as a regulated import but with a
preshipment importation clearance from
the Environmental Management Bureau
under the Department of Environment and
Natural Resources.
Live Green Enterprise was charged
with violating Section 3601 of the Tariff
and Customs Code, in relation to the
DENR Administrative Order entitled
“Interim Guidelines for the Importation
of Recyclable Materials Containing
Hazardous Substances.”
The BOC discovered the trash, which
arrived at the Manila International Container
Photo courtesy of MCWMC
Port, in May after making an inventory of
overstaying cargo.
Impor t documents identified the
exporter as Demetrios Jim Makris of
Chronic Inc. Canada, the same company
that shipped the 55 container vans of
heterogeneous waste that arrived in the
country last year and were consigned to
Chronic Plastics. This caused the BOC
to suspect more shipments of trash were
coming.
The bureau filed similar charges in
the DOJ against the owner and broker of
Chronic Plastics in February 2014, which
are pending in court.
Bi-partisan US Congressional solons praise Philippine
efforts to peacefully resolve South China Sea dispute
South China Sea Goran tek-en, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators John
McCain (R-AZ) and Jack Reed (D-RI),
Chairman and Ranking Member of the
Senate Armed Services Committee, and
Senators Bob Corker (R-TN) and Ben
Cardin (D-MD), Chairman and Ranking
Member of the Senate Foreign Relations
Commit tee, released the following
statement today in support of efforts by the
Philippines to peacefully resolve territorial
disputes in the South China Sea:
“Over the past week a legal team from
the Philippines began oral arguments
before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in
The Hague. The court will decide if Manila
has jurisdiction in a case the state filed
last year before the International Tribunal
on the Law of the Sea concerning China’s
expansive claim to almost the entire South
China Sea. If the court chooses to consider
the Philippines’ case, it will then make a
ruling on the legality of China’s vast and,
in our view, questionable claim sometime
next year.
“Although the United States does not
take a po