(CNN Philippines) — Environmentalists asked President Benigno Aquino III not to forget the issue on illegal waste from Canada as he left leaves for an official visit to North America this week.
“Stand up to the Canadians and ask Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take back their illegal waste shipment,” lawyer Richard Gutierrez, executive director of BAN Toxics, in a statement sent to media on Monday (May 4),
He said the president must do this, not only because it is legal, but to also to defend the dignity of Filipinos.
BAN Toxics ia a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote environmental justice in Southeast Asia.
In 2014, a Change.org petition brought to light the case of 50 40-foot container vans that have been left at the Manila Port since 2013.
“Garbage juice” had leaked out of the containers and posed a health hazard.
To date, the petition has over 25,000 signatures.
An interagency commission investigated the issue and the DENR later declared the material inside the vans nontoxic.
Related: Stricter toxic waste law eyed
The commission is made up of representatives from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
Despite this, BAN Toxics said the shipment was illegal and is “in violation of the Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal, an international treaty that regulates toxic waste and other wastes to which both Canada and the Philippines are parties to.”
According to BAN Toxics, the shipment should have been returned to Canada, which must also shoulder the cost of transport.
Groups concerned about illegal waste shipment worry that allowing it to be disposed in the Philippines would set a precedent allowing garbage from wealthier countries to be dumped here.
Abigail Aguilar, a Greenpeace Philippines toxic campaigner, said the issue should not be avoided just to allow the government to preserve diplomatic relations.
According to the release from BAN Toxics, the government has been spending at least P144,000 daily to store the illegal shipment of waste.
President Aquino left the country on Wednesday (May 6) to visit the United States and Canada.
From May 7 to 8, he will be in Canada and will meet with Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Harper and Governor General David Johnson.
CNN Philippines’ Mikas Matsuzawa contributed to this report.
