Day: October 8, 2014

Or why we are paying P144,000 a day for imported garbage

By Julius D. Mariveles

TODAY, October 8, 2014, at the Port of Manila, fifty 40-foot container vans containing a smorgasbord of waste from Canada is on its 458th day of stay in the Philippines and the government, or we for that matter, will be paying P66 million for it.

And the register keeps on ticking.

These containers lounging at the port have caused problems – from port congestion, traffic snarls, to the loss, albeit temporary, of some of our favorite dishes at fastfood chains.

There could be some more lurking deep within these containers filled with “toxic waste,” according to campaigners, that may or may already be affecting the environment or, worse, the people’s health.

Greenpeace-Philippines toxic campaginer Abigal Aguilar told the PCIJ that based on their estimates, the government is spending at least P144,000 a day for the loss of income for storage space and the additional expenses for demurrage or payment for the chartered vessel.

GOVERNMENT plans to dump the toxic Canadian wastes in landfills, like this one in Bacolod City, instead of sending it back to the port of origin | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

Aguilar said total losses have already reached at least P66 million as of today, which can be broken down into P23.3 million for storage space and an additional P43 million for demurrage.

And while Filipinos are up in arms over the dumping of things dirty, government wants to do something dirty about it, environmentalists and anti-toxic campaigners say.

“Instead of bringing it back to the port of origin, government wants to dispose of it in the country… they are planning to dump it in sanitary landfills in Region 3, possibly near Subic,” Greenpeace Toxics Campaigner for the Philippine Abigail Aguilar tells the PCIJ.

And who’s going to pay for the cost of transporting them to landfills?

“It’s the government, which means that we, the taxpayers, will be spending for it,” Aguilar adds.

Greenpace and other groups like BAN Toxics, 1-BAP Partylist, Ang Nars Partylist, and Ecowaste Coalition have been calling on the government to speed up the retutrn of these container vans that contain mixed waste ranging from plastics with liquids and household garbage including adult diapers.

A SCAVENGER at a dumpsite in Bacolod City, Philippines | Photo by Julius D. Mariveles

Adult diapers alone, which may also contain human waste, pose a health risk because of the possibility that those who used it are sick, Aguilar points out. Some people have already raised concerns about the foul smell coming from and the leaching or the leaking out of fluids, whatever these may be, from the container vans.

But that’s just based on a quick peek into the content of these containers, she adds, since port authorities were able to open only 18 of the 50 container vans.

The wastes were imported by Chronic Plastics, a Valenzuela City-based firm, through its shipper, Chronic, Inc.

Authorities filed smuggling chargers against the company for alleged violation of the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990, and other Philippine laws.

The shipments started arriving June of 2013.

More than 23,000 people have already signed the petition of Anna Marie Kapunan on the change.org platform calling on the Canadian Embassy in the Philippines to the “re-export” the container vans.

Aguilar notes that this is not the first time that shipments of this kind arrived in the Philippines.

In 2001, 127 container vans from Japan containing domestic and hospital waste declared as scrap paper also arrived in the Philippines.

GREENPEACE, BAN Toxics, 1-BAP Partylist, Ang Nars Partylist, and Ecowaste Coalition will be holding a news conference on October 9, 2014 in Quezon City, Philippines about this issue. Stay tuned for more developments.