Customs chief sues importer, brokers of Canada garbage

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—“Philippines is not a dumpsite,” Customs Commissioner John Sevilla said Thursday after it filed with the Department of Justice a complaint against importer of 50 container vans containing tons of waste materials from Canada.

Facing a complaint for violation of Sections 3601 and 3602 of the Tariff and Customs and Republic Act 6969 or the Toxic Substance and Hazardous Wastes and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990 and Article 172 in relation to article 171 of the Revised Penal Code for Falsification are Adelfa Eduardo, owner of Chronic Plastics, a firm based in Canumay, Valenzuela City, and the company’s licensed customs brokers Leonora Flores and Sherjun Saldon.

RA 6969 bans the importation of hazardous materials into the Philippines while the TCCP holds an importer criminally liable for unlawful importations.

“It is very clear that these waste materials were shipped to the Philippines illegally. There were violations in the process for importation and misdeclarations made on paper. Moreover, we must be mindful of the threat to public health and safety that these wastes could bring to our people,” Sevilla said Thursday.

The waste materials were declared as scrap plastic materials for recycling.

The container vans arrived in six batches from June to August 2013 at the Manila International Container Port and were subsequently seized by Customs Police and operatives of the Enforcement Group after a spot inspection revealed that these contained used mixed and unsorted or “heterogeneous” plastic materials, including household garbage and even used adult diapers, and not homogeneous or recyclable plastic scrap materials as declared by the importer.

The importers even declared a total value of P3.9-Million for 19 of the containers.

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