JUST THIS Monday, May 6, President Duterte issued a verbal directive against waste importation amid the country’s long-running garbage feud with Canada.
“The President is firm that we are not ‘garbage collectors’, thus he ordered that the Philippines will no longer accept any waste from any country,” said Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo.
This is one government policy worth supporting by everybody. In fact it should go even further by ratifying the Basel Ban Amendment to protect the country from becoming a dumping ground for the world’s garbage. The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, which lists Canada and the Philippines among the state parties, explicitly stipulates that parties “shall not oppose, hinder or prevent the return of those wastes to the State of export.”
The Canadian — and lately, South Korean – plastic garbage dumping incidents, as well as the regulatory developments in Asian countries following China’s ban on 32 categories of waste imports, justify a revision of Department of Environment and Natural Resources’ (DENR) Administrative Order 2013-22 that still allows the importation of solid plastic waste materials and electronic assemblies and scraps into the country.
Following the promulgation of China’s policy which took effect in January 2018, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as India, adopted regulations banning plastic and/or electronic waste imports.
After the departure of the Canadian garbage next week, we expect DENR secretary Roy Cimatu and Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) director Metodio Turbella to formalize President Duterte’s verbal instruction into a strong regulatory policy that will proactively prevent the entry of hazardous wastes and other wastes into our ports.
We look forward to that joyful day when unlawful waste imports are finally sent back for environmentally-sound disposal their countries of origin. This will be a triumph for the rule of law and environmental justice, according to the Ecowaste Coalition.
We should send a clear message to the global community, including waste traders and traffickers, that the Philippines is not a dumping ground for wastes and toxics from overseas.
