12 Philippine Showbiz Today
September 8 - 21, 2016
Philippines to send back trash shipment to Canada
The Philippines will ship
back to Canada the wastes
that arrived in the country
in early 2013.
The Bureau of Customs
(BOC) in the Philippines
made this announcement in
a statement on September
6, 2016.
President
Rodrigo
Duterte, when he was still
mayor of Davao City in
July 2015, called on then
President Benigno Aquino
III to protest Canada’s trash
in the Philippines.
Aquino did not raise the
issue in his bilateral meet-
ing with Canadian Prime
Minister Justin Trudeau in
2015.
The
Canadian
prime
minister
was
confronted
with the question during
a press conference at the
Asia-Pacifi c Economic Co-
operation (APEC) Summit
in Manila in November that
year.
Trudeau was non-commit-
tal on the call of Filipino envi-
ronmental groups for his coun-
try to bring back the container
vans of trash illegally shipped
to the Philippines.
The BOC said in the state-
ment that an inter-agency
committee has agreed to push
through with a court’s order on
the repatriation of the 2,500
REYFORT
Joel Castro
Web Adviser
www.joelcastro.com
Jose P. Lirios
Contributing Writer
tons of trash that came from
Vancouver.
The
inter-agency
com-
mittee includes the BOC, De-
partments of Foreign Aff airs,
Environment and Natural Re-
sources, and Justice.
In a meeting on September
5, the committee expressed
favor on the June 30 decision
of the Manila Regional Trial
Court Branch 1 Judge Tita
Bughao-Alisuag, ordering the
shipping back of the wastes
to Canada at the expense of
the importer.
The June 30 court or-
der covers fi fty forty-footer
(50x40) containers found to
have assorted heterogeneous
plastic materials, all consigned
to Chronic Plastics Inc.
The
containers,
parked
at the Subic and Manila In-
ternational Container Yards,
are said to be causing port
congestion,
posing
hazards
to public health, and incurring
expenses on the part of BOC.
The Manila regional trial
court will conduct another
hearing on the case on Sep-
tember 30, with the Depart-
ment of Justice set to fi le a
motion for the execution of
the order.
In February 2014, the BOC
fi led charges against Adelfa
Eduardo, owner of Chronic
Plastics, a fi rm in Valenzuela
City, for allegedly violating
the Tariff and Customs Code
of the Philippines (TCCP) and
the Toxic Substance and Haz-
ardous Wastes and Nuclear
Wastes Control Act of 1990
(Republic Act 6969).
Also charged were the
company’s licensed customs
brokers Leonora Flores and
Sherjun Saldon.
Republic Act 6969 prohib-
its the importation of hazard-
ous waste to the Philippines.
The TCCP holds an importer
criminally liable for illegal im-
ports.
Canada had said it does not
have a law that would force it
to take back the garbage, and
asked the Philippines to dis-
pose of them locally. •