CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Misamis Oriental Governor Yevgeny Vincente Emano said Monday they are considering legal action against government agencies that allowed the entry of garbage materials from South Korea, which were shipped to an economic zone in Tagoloan town.
Emano was referring to the tons of plastic trash imported by Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corporation, which it said will be used as raw materials for recycling.
According to the Bureau of Customs in Region 10 (BOC-10), about 6,500 metric tons of plastic materials entered local ports on two separate occasions this year.
The first shipment, more than 5,100 metric tons, arrived at the Philippine Sinter Corporation port in Villanueva, Misamis Oriental on July 21, 2018. The materials are now stored inside the Verde Soko facility in Sitio Buguac, Barangay Santa Cruz, Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
The second batch of plastic trash in 51 container vans arrived at the Mindanao Container Terminal (MCT) in Tagoloan on Oct. 20, 2018 that the BOC withheld within the Phividec Industrial Estate complex.
Verde Soko officials said the trash will be processed into pellets and briquettes and will be shipped back to South Korea and China as raw materials for plastic furniture and other items.
The garbage shipments have become a growing scandal in the province, as criticisms mount from local officials and environmental advocates on the propriety of importing rubbish when many parts of the country have enough of it.
Emano said the provincial government is studying what legal action can be taken against Phividec and BOC officials.
“We will be compelled to file a case against Phividec, and even the Bureau of Customs, if there’s a need,” the governor said.
The Phividec Industrial Authority is a government-owned and controlled corporation that manages the 3,000-hectare wide Phividec Industrial Estate in Misamis Oriental. It is home to dozens of multinational companies enjoying the privileges of an economic zone.
Neil Alburo, Verde Soko president, told Misamis Oriental Provincial Board members during a committee hearing on Nov. 15 that they are willing to have the plastic trash shipped back to South Korea if the environment department deemed it toxic.
Charles Cho, the company’s chairman, said during the committee hearing that South Korea has a better waste management system in that the plastics that Verde Soko has imported are ready for recycling.
Lawyer Julius Lotilla, an official of the Cebu-based environmental group Sustainable Energy and Enterprise Development for Communities (Seed4Com), said they are keeping a close watch on Verde Soko to check if the company is really involved in recycling plastic wastes.
“We have not resolved the plastic pollution in the country. That’s what we want to achieve, whatever initiative is taken to resolve the country’s plastic pollution,” Lotilla said, referring to the Verde Soko’s intention.
Another advocacy group, Pinoy Aksyon on Governance and the Environment, said in a statement on Monday that the BOC-10 and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) must take proper action on the issue, even as it lambasted Verde Soko for the importation of plastic wastes.
Bencyrus Ellorin, Pinoy Aksyon chairperson, said the raw materials that Verde Soko imported are abundant in the country.
In fact, he said, Republic Act 900 of the solid waste management law mandates the recycling of these materials usually used as sachets of shampoos and an array of instant drinks.
“What makes matters worse is the mixing of other wastes to these plastics,” Ellorin said. “Obviously, the plastic flakes were just used as a front of the blatantly illegal importation of toxic wastes which is prohibited by Philippine laws and the Basel Convention.”
Basel Convention is an international treaty that was designed to reduce the movements of hazardous waste between nations, and specifically to prevent the transfer of hazardous waste from developed to less developed countries. The Philippines is a signatory to the convention. (PNA)
