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FROM June 2013 to January 2014, a total of 103 container vans of mixed garbage from Canada, misdeclared as “plastic scraps” for recycling, entered the country in 10 batches and subsequently intercepted by customs authorities. After sitting in the ports, 26 containers of these trash consignments were illegally disposed of at the Metro Clark Landfill in Tarlac between June 26 to July 8, 2015, drawing the ire of local officials and residents.
This unresolved garbage dumping scandal continues to haunt Prime Minister Justin Trudeau who first visited the country in 2015 for the APEC Summit. He is here again for the ASEAN Summit and still faces mounting calls to take the rotting garbage home. Interestingly, his much-publicized out-of-schedule visit to a popular fastfood restaurant was just a few minutes away from the Port of Manila where the illegal trash imports are stored. He should have gone there as well to see for himself the reeking Canadian trash shipments.
Trudeau cannot skip the garbage issue with another vague statement like what he did in 2015 on the sidelines of the APEC Summit. Evading it again will badly reflect on his capacity and sincerity as a global leader, and will only mean he doesn’t really care about the rotting trash in our port and their adverse impacts to our health, environment and to our dignity as a sovereign nation.
He should uphold the highest good of his office before the international community by complying with his country’s legally bounded treaty commitment disallowing the transboundary shipments of hazardous waste. We are referring to a legally-binding treaty called the “Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal,” which includes Canada and the Philippines as state parties, that aims to protect human health and the environment against the adverse effects of hazardous wastes and other wastes.
In June 2016, Judge Tita Bughao-Alisuag of the Regional Trial Court of Manila ordered the return of the 50 shipping containers covered by Criminal Case No. 143-11191, emphasizing that the Philippines is not a “trash bin” and that the dumping incident “should not be made a precedent for other countries to follow.” The court order has yet to be complied with.
No country deserves to be a dumping ground for another country’s rubbish. Canada has no option but to re-import their trash and to guarantee that such unethical act will never occur again.
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