MEMBERS of the House Committee on Ecology asked the Canadian government to ship back to its territory the 50 container vans of mixed waste.
In a letter sent to a member of Canada’s House of Commons, Rep. Amado S. Bagatsing of Manila said the North American territory has no right to dispose of its waste in the Philippine jurisdiction.
Bagatsing, chairman of the House Committee on Ecology, cited the Basel Convention on the control of transboundary movements of hazardous waste and their disposal as basis for the committee’s missive.
Under the convention, the aforementioned act is deemed as an illegal traffic, based on Paragraph 1.c of Article 9 of the said convention, according to the letter.
“Furthermore, it must be noted that Paragraph 2 of the convention states that the State of export shall ensure that the illegal traffic are either: (a) taken back by the exporter or the generator or, if necessary, by itself into the State of export; or, if impracticable, (b) disposed of in accordance with the provisions of this Convention, within 30 days from the time the State of export has been informed about the illegal traffic or such other period of time as States concerned may agree,” the letter said.
“It is unfortunate to note that, in this regard, the Office of the Ambassador of Canada to the Philippines released a statement stating that there is no current domestic law, which your government could apply to compel the shipper to return its containers to Canada,” it added.
Bagatsing, however, expressed hope and confidence the issue “could be resolved through the diplomatic channels?”
The lawmaker added that members of his panel are also united against disposing of the waste in any area within the Philippine jurisdiction.
“In this connection, we would like to express our united position that the 50 container vans of waste, including those waste exported thereafter, be shipped back by the government of Canada itself, since it cannot compel the shipper to return its containers to Canada pursuant to the Basel Convention,” it added.
Bagatsing also told his Canadian counterpart that his committee recently deliberated on House Resolution 1525, which seeks to inquire into the unlawful importation of mixed waste from Canada.
According to documents from his office, the container vans filled with waste, mostly with used plastic bags, bottles, newspapers, household garbage and used adult diapers, were shipped from Canada by Chronic Inc., a private company in Ontario, from June to September 2013.
The shipment was seized by the Bureau of Customs, which declared the contents thereof as heterogeneous waste, thus, an unlawful importation pursuant to Republic Act 6969, titled “Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990,” the lawmaker told the Canadian government.
Criminal cases were already lodged against Chronic Plastics, according to Bagatsing.