House measure on toxic waste disposal framework advances
The House of Representatives is scheduled to pass a bill seeking the formulation of a framework that would ensure the comprehensive management of hazardous and radioactive wastes in the country.
As this developed, an environmental justice group criticized President Aquino for his failure to address the Canadian illegal waste dumping issue in the country during his May 7-9 state visit in Canada.
The House Committee on Ecology, chaired by Manila Rep. Amado S. Bagatsing approved and endorsed for plenary approval of House Bill 5585, which is a consolidation of six measures.
“Despite all our laws scattered in different enactments and decrees, we need a comprehensive and consolidated law that will provide us with an effective hazardous and radioactive waste management framework, which would require an inter-agency coordination both in the national and local government to oversee and make inventory of hazardous waste creators and treatment, storage and disposal facilities,” Tarlac Rep. Susan A. Yap, one of the authors of the bill said.
She attributed to the absence of a law on the proper management and disposal of hazardous wastes the 1996 Marcopper mining disaster in Marinduque, which was one of the largest mining disasters in Philippine history that made headlines around the world.
“The discharge of mining tailings into the Boac River instantly killed the 27-kilometer long river, decimated the fish and other biodiversity in the habitat, buried at least one village underneath a toxic mud, depriving tens of thousands locals of their livelihood,” Yap lamented. Toxic waste dumping concerns Citing the report of the EcoWaste Coalition, an environmental non-government organization last July, she expressed alarm over the dumping of hazardous wastes at Pier 18 of Manila, composed of used computer hardware, chip boards, and cellular phones, which contain heavy metals that are toxic to humans.
“Our experience shows that a more comprehensive hazardous and radioactive wastes management is of extreme necessity in order to avert industrial disasters that could potentially destroy our environment and ecology, and ultimately, our people’s health and safety,” Yap said.
She noted that in 2004, the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DSWD) registered 3,801 hazardous wastes generators, which produce 226 million tons of hazardous wastes annually.
House Bill 5585 or the “Hazardous and Radioactive Wastes Management Act” covers the generation, possession, collection, recovery, reuse, storage, transport, treatment and disposal of hazardous and radioactive wastes in the country. Canadian toxic waste
brouhaha BAN Toxics (BT) yesterday claimed that Aquino conveniently forgot to bring to the attention of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper the issue of dumped Canadian toxic waste in the country’s ports, focusing instead on trade ties between the two countries.
The group said that Harper’s website said the recently- concluded state visit heralded bilateral initiatives in the areas of commerce, development and security and launched exploratory discussions on economic partnerships and free trade agreement.
No mention has been made on the illegal Canadian waste shipment, 50 forty-foot container vans containing various household waste materials, including used adult diapers, dirty plastics and even electronic wastes.
“The Canadian government has demanded its pound of flesh from the Filipinos. It is a very sad day for the Philippines as our own President failed to stand up for our rights and our dignity as a nation in exchange for empty economic titles and promises,” BT executive director Atty. Richard Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez feared that the decision of the interagency committee to dispose the Canadian wastes here will set a precedent for other rich countries to dump their wastes in the Philippines.
The inter-agency committee in charge of the Canadian waste is composed of the Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), Health (DOH) and the Bureau of Customs (BOC).
“Harper is taking advantage of our country’s poverty and weak government that he continues to dole out his so-called economic assistance in exchange for making poor countries like the Philippines a dumpsite,” Gutierrez said.
The Canadian government continued to dodge the issue by saying this is a private matter between the Canadian exporter, Chronic Inc. and its Filipino counterpart, Chronic Plastics.