Officials of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) on Thursday lauded the Government of the Republic of Korea’s probe of a Korean exporter, and the decision to have the tons of waste that contain hazardous materials be brought back to Seoul.
“It is a positive development. It only shows they are compliant with the provision of the Basel Convention on the Trans-boundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal,” lawyer Jonas R. Leones, designated spokesman of Environment Secretary Roy A. Cimatu, told the BusinessMirror.
Leones, also environment undersecretary for Policy, Planning and International Affairs, said trans-boundary movement, under the international treaty, is prohibited without the consent of either the exporter or importer.
“The decision of the South Korean Government only shows that the Basel Convention is working,” he said.
National Solid Waste Management Commission Secretariat Executive Secretary Eligio Ildefonso said it is only appropriate for the Government of South Korea to take back its hazardous waste.
“In the first place, it is against the Basel Convention, and there’s no import permit for it,” Ildefonso said.
Ildefonso said the discovery of the toxic wastes being shipped into the country should serve as a lesson for both the Korean and the Philippine governments.
“The fact that the imported recyclable plastic was able to get past the Korean ports means even the Korean authorities need to strengthen their monitoring of exported materials,” he said.
In the Philippines, Ildefonso said, there is a need to strengthen the monitoring of the country’s ports to ensure that no such importation of toxic or hazardous wastes will ever happen in the future.
Leones and Ildefonso were reacting to a news statement issued by the Korean Embassy in Manila, stating that the Government of the Republic of Korea—the Ministry of Environment, the Korea Customs Service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will conduct an investigation and will have the wastes in question be brought back to Korea as soon as possible.
Benny D. Antiporda, the DENR’s undersecretary for Solid Waste Management and Local Government Unit Concerns, had earlier informed the Government of South Korea about the violation of the Basel Convention, including Philippine laws, particularly Republic Act 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990.
Through an e-mail, Sunyoung Kim, Minister Counselor for Economic Affairs of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, assured to Antiporda that appropriate measures will be undertaken to deal with the issue of waste imports to Mindanao from Korea by Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp.
The e-mail reflected similar explanations and course of actions taken by the government of South Korea.
“As the Bureau of Customs in the Philippines uncovered last July illegal plastic wastes which were exported from Korea, Korea’s Ministry of Environment and the Customs Service on November 16 jointly inspected the exporter of the wastes in question, located in Pyeongtaek City,” it said.
“The exporter in question made the export declaration on waste synthetic highly polymerized compound in January 2018,” it added.
“The joint inspection of the exporter’s business site found plastic wastes mixed with a significant amount of materials, such as wood and metal wastes and wastes, which had not gone through an appropriate recycling process,” it said.
The e-mail message added: “Since the Ministry of Environment and the Korea Customs Service confirmed that the exporter had exported wastes which had not gone through a proper recycling process…and that documents required for export were forged, they have taken measures against related violations of law.”
“The Ministry of Environment on November 21 initiated legal procedure to have the wastes in question in the Philippines be brought back in accordance with Article 20 of the Law on Cross-border movement and Disposal of Wastes—Prior Notice of Repatriation Order—and embarked on investigation of the violation of Article 18-2 of the said law—False Export Declaration,” it said.
The Korea Customs Service is investigating the exporter in question for the possibility of its exporting of wastes with illegitimately prepared export documentation.
Korean authorities will have the wastes in question be repatriated and properly disposed of and work to prevent recurrence of the problem, it said.