Protesters tell Canada to take back tons of garbage illegally shipped to a port in Manila from Canada two years ago. NIÑO JESUS ORBETA/FILE PHOTO
After officials of Tarlac and Bulacan provinces objected to the dumping of garbage from Canada in the local landfills, concerned groups also urged the Quezon City government to pass a resolution opposing any plan to dispose of the foreign waste in Payatas.
A proposed resolution filed by Quezon City Councilor Dorothy Delarmente said that the Bureau of Customs “is reportedly scurrying for alternative sites where the illegal garbage imports from Canada can be disposed of after Tarlac and Bulacan provincial officials have raised legitimate objections to foreign waste being dumped in local landfills.”
The draft measure expresses strong disapproval of any move to dump the Canada waste at the Payatas Sanitary Landfill in Quezon City.
“The Quezon City Council finds the dumping of foreign waste into our country as totally inexcusable and unacceptable and demands that such unethical and unlawful act be brought a halt,” the proposed resolution said.
Aileen Lucero, coordinator of the EcoWaste Coalition, said the resolution should be swiftly adopted by the City Council, noting that its passage would be a “great gift the councilors can give as the city marks on August 19 the 137th birth anniversary of former President Manuel Luis Quezon after whom the city was named.”
“They will surely earn ‘ganda’ and ‘pogi’ points for saying ‘no’ against dumping,” Lucero said.
“Whether hazardous or not, as some quarters would claim, the controversial garbage would not qualify as ‘municipal waste’ because it’s not locally generated,” she added.
Other Quezon City-based groups, such as Ang NARS, Ban Toxics, Bukluran ng Manggagawang Pilipino-NCR, Greenpeace and Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment, have also expressed support for the proposed resolution.
EcoWaste said that from June 2013 to January 2014, a total of 103 shipping containers of mixed garbage from Canada misdeclared as “plastic scraps” for recycling were exported to the Philippines.
At least 26 of these containers were dumped at a landfill in Capas, Tarlac, from June 26 to July 8.
Tarlac Gov. Victor Yap had suspended further dumping of the foreign waste pending a probe by the provincial board.
Environmental groups have said that the illegal importation of garbage contravened national and international laws.