Group wants SoKor to set date for return of trash dumped in Mindanao

Environmental group EcoWaste Coalition troop to the South Korean embassy to urge the South Korean government to act swiftly to ensure a speedy return of tons of garbage imported from South Korea which are sitting at the Mindanao International Container Terminal. GRIG C. MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER

MANILA, Philippines — An environmental group has urged the government of South Korea to set the date for the return of 6,500 tons of trash now  dumped in Misamis Oriental.

The EcoWaste Coalition said on Tuesday that it has sent a letter to the Embassy of the Republic of Korea, requesting that Ambassador Han Dong-man set a defined date on when to collect the trash and return it to Korea.

“The removal of the Korean garbage from Mindanao will be your great country’s best Christmas gift to our nation and people,” said Ecowaste Coalition national coordinator Aileen Lucero in the letter addressed to Ambassador Han Dong-man.

“Our exasperating experience with the illegal trash imports from Canada, which are still stranded in our country, has taught us how important it is to have a defined date,” Lucero said in a statement.

“That’s why we want the South Korean government to give us a 2018 return date and keep its promise for expedited action,” she added.

Lucero said that it has already been a month since the government of South Korea promised to take back the more than 6,000 metric tons of garbage dumped in Misamis Oriental.

READ: Group slams dumping of Korean trash in Misamis town

She added that the Bureau of Customs (BOC) has confirmed that the garbage is now ready for pick-up for return to South Korea.

In a “Re-Exportation Order” issued by the BOC dated Dec. 6, the agency described the garbage as “misdeclared, heterogenous and injurious to public health.”

A copy of the said order was also sent to the Embassy of South Korea last Dec. 13.  /muf