BoC ships back waste export from SKorea

THE Bureau of Customs (BoC) has shipped back the last shipment of 80 containers of hazardous waste back to its port of origin in Pyeongtaek City, South Korea.

Assistant Commissioner and concurrent BoC spokesman Philip Vincent Maronilla disclosed on Wednesday that the waste, which weighed approximately 6,000 tons, was reexported on August 4 from the Mindanao Container Port (MCT), a subport of the bureau’s Port of Cagayan de Oro.

He added that the first 51 containers out of 200 containers of waste had been shipped back on Jan. 9, 2019, but the succeeding shipments were delayed by the restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, MCT subport coollector John Simon said the action of the bureau against the illegal Korean waste was a clear signal to all concerned that our country is not a global dump and that waste traffickers will be held accountable to the fullest extent of the law.

“However, our fight is far from over. We still need to assess the damage done to the environment and to hold responsible parties liable, while laws and regulations are crafted or strengthened disallowing the transfer of wastes from other countries into our land,” he pointed out.

Imported by Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp., the South Korean waste shipments were wrongly declared as “plastic synthetic flakes” and weighing about 6,500 tons arrived in Northern Mindanao in July and October 2018.

Assessed by the authorities as “misdeclared, heterogenous and injurious to public health,” the BoC then immediately issued three warrants of seizure and detention against the illegal waste shipments from South Korea.

The bureau also issued a reexportation order for the said waste shipments, citing violations of

Department of Environment and Natural Resources Administrative Order 2013-22 and Republic Act 10863 or the “Customs Modernization and Tariff Act.l

The EcoWaste Coalition, a toxics watchdog group, hailed the BoC’s move and called for it to. Keep its promise to ship back the remaining illegal plastic waste imports from South Korea. It said the reexportation of the last batch of smuggled waste imports from South Korea amid the coronavirus pandemic showed the BoC’s resolve to protect the national interest against the illegal shipment of waste materials.