MANILA, Philippines — The Department of Justice (DOJ) has recommended the filing of charges in court against two Customs examiners and two appraisers in the illegal importation of hazardous solid waste from Canada in 2013 and 2014.
In a Dec. 4, 2020, resolution, a DOJ panel of prosecutors said it found probable cause to indict Bureau of Customs (BOC) examiners Benjamin Perez Jr. and Eufracio Ednaco, appraisers Matilda Bacongan and Jose Saromo for violation of Republic Act No. 6969, or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Waste Control Act of 1990.
The panel cleared Juan Miguel Cuna, undersecretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and three other officials of criminal charges for the same offense involving solid waste shipments.
The three other Environmental Management Bureau officials cleared by the DOJ were Irvin Cadavona, Geri Geronimo Sañez and Renato Cruz.
The DOJ also dismissed the complaint for violation of RA 3019, or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, against all the respondents for insufficiency of evidence.
The resolution stemmed from the complaint filed by the National Bureau of Investigation’s Environmental Crime Division-Investigative Service.
Solid waste
More than 100 containers filled with municipal solid waste and not plastic scrap as declared were shipped in batches from Canada to the Philippines from 2013 to 2014 by the Canadian company Chronic Plastics Inc.
President Duterte ordered the return of the tons of garbage to Canada.
In its resolution, the DOJ panel, which conducted the preliminary investigation, said customs examiners Perez and Ednaco, and appraisers Bacongan and Saromo “knew, or were supposed to know, that the items entering the Philippines were hazardous materials and not plastic scrap materials.”
“After all, they claimed to have physically examined the subject importations. When they rerouted these shipments to ‘green’, they effectively facilitated the importation of hazardous waste into the Philippines,” it said.