K-trash cargo not examined
CODE CHANGED TO APPEAR IT ISN’T TRASH
The examiner at the Bureau of Customs at the Cebu Port has admitted not checking the cargo from South Korea that was later found to contain trash, which was allegedly meant to be dumped in Cebu City.
The shipment on board MV Christina arrived in Cebu on January 20.
During the hearing by the Committee on Ecology at the House of Representatives yesterday, Customs examiner Dennis Adisas admitted not examining the shipment physically.
He said he examined only the shipment documents and relied on the Port Load of Survey Report from the port of origin. The Port Load of Survey Report stated the shipment contained recyclable plastic resins and wood chips.
As it turned out, the shipment contained 5,000 metric tons or five million kilos of mixed trash.
"You are not doing your job. You are supposed to examine the shipment, much less, smell it," Deputy Speaker Gwendolyn Garcia told Adisas.
It was Garcia who called for an inquiry into the entry of the trash in Cebu and to allegations government officials colluded to have it dumped at the landfill in Barangay Inayawan, Cebu City.
Still during the hearing, a representative of the brokerage firm that handled the shipment, Alin Customs Brokerage, also admitted changing the shipment’s HS Code to make it appear that it did not contain trash.
One of the committee members said this is being done by brokers to get away with the import permit to be issued by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
Customs Cebu District Collector Elvira Cruz said, however, that this is not a normal practice and those caught doing it will be charged 250 percent.
Adisas also said they did not notice the change of the shipment’s HS Code.
Garcia said another aspect that needs to be looked into deeper was how the shipment was able to sneak out of Customs and get dumped eventually in Mandaue City.
"Surely there has to be a logical reason for the shipper to send all these trash to Cebu City and that there was a ready recipient that such trash would be readily accommodated," Garcia said.
EXIT FROM CUSTOMS
The cargo was unloaded a few days after its arrival and was delivered to the warehouse of the consignee, Moving Forward Global Trading Inc., in Barangay Guizo, Mandaue City and at the open dumpsite in Barangay Tingub, also in Mandaue.
The foul odor and the presence of garbage itself prompted residents in Tingub to report the matter to authorities.
On February 8, BOCCebu district collector Elvira Cruz issued a warrant of seizure and detention for intentional misdeclaration.
Of the five million kilos of trash, 250,000 kilos was shipped back to South Korea last March while the remaining 250,000 kilos that was stored at the warehouse in Guizo was declared abandoned by BOC-Cebu.
DENIALS
Later, a certain Felix S. Lopez, Jr. wrote President Rodrigo Duterte and alleged Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, former Cebu City Councilor Augustus "Jun" Pe, Bureau of CustomsCebu deputy collector for operations Rico Rey Francis Holganza, a certain Mr. Choi, Edmund Roxas and some Customs personnel and Koreans allegedly planned on dumping the trash at the Inayawan landfill.
Osmeña, Pe, and Holganza have since denied any participation.
Osmeña’s executive assistant, Francisco Fernandez, also said yesterday:
"We have nothing to do with this shipment (trash). In fact, we were surprised we are linked on this shipment that came out from the Port of Cebu which is not our jurisdiction. We do not want to dignify this. This is without any basis at all. We deny this completely."
"It would be very unlikely to ship garbage to Cebu City when the Inayawan landfill was controversial and we even lost at the Court of Appeals," Fernandez pointed out.
The Inayawan Landfill was ordered closed by the court on December 15, 2016 for violating environmental laws.
While Garcia said she finds it "coincidental" and "suspicious" that the trash arrived at a time Cebu City wanted to reopen the landfill, Fernandez said the only reason the city wants to dump in Inayawan again was because bringing its 600 tons of garbage daily to Consolacion is very expensive.
Osmeña asked the committee to ascertain Lopez’ identity to “ensure we are not taken for a ride by somebody because of amusement or malice.”
“Because Cebu City was unfairly and falsely accused, it is only prudent for us to seek the truth of the garbage controversy. Documents about the shipment gathered have contradicted the letter sender’s account,” reads the official statement Osmeña sent to Congress.
These documents include the Port Load Survey Report (PLSR), which was received by the office of District Collector Elvira Cruz on January 19, not during Holganza’s watch; the Single Administrative Documents (SAD) and the Routing Slip, which showed the shipment was processed and released with undue haste of only two days (January 20-21) and still under Cruz’s watch; and the Alert Order issued on February 8, a day after the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) issued a derogatory report about the shipment.