Tarlac execs probe Canadian trash

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO—The Tarlac provincial board is conducting today its first public hearing on the disposal of illegally shipped trash from Canada at a sanitary landfill in Capas town.

Gov. Victor Yap said the board would hear the complaints and sentiments of residents in Capas, as well as in Bamban, where the landfill run by Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. (MCWMC) is accessed via Sitio Pagasa in Barangay Anupul in Bamban.

The board, headed by Vice Gov. Enrique Cojuangco Jr., would review local laws and resolutions governing the terms of dumping garbage there. The hearing is set for 10 a.m. at the provincial capitol in Tarlac City.

“Whether toxic or not, it is not good if another country dumps its trash in our country,” Cojuangco said on national television.

Yap said the wastes’ origin is “outside of those areas approved by the [provincial board],” referring to Resolution 103-2003 through which the board did not object to the dumping of wastes from other cities and towns, including Metro Manila.

This request by the National Solid Waste Management Commission was relayed to the board by former Environment Secretary Elisea Gozun.

Rufo Colayco, MCWMC president and chief executive officer, said the company agreed to the request of the Bureau of Customs (BOC) to accept and bury the wastes because these were classified as “municipal solid waste,” as certified by the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

26 container vans

As of July 8, the contents of 26 container vans had been unloaded in a common pit at the landfill,

Colayco said, correcting an earlier report that 29 had been emptied.

Three vans expected that day did not arrive, he said. MCWMC was expecting 45 to 50 container vans, based on BOC’s advice.

Yap assailed the EMB and BOC for not coordinating the transport and dumping of the garbage with the provincial and local governments.

The BOC, which seized the cargoes in 2013 for violations of the Basel Convention and Tariff Code of the Philippines, issued the condemnation proceedings on May 5 after a judge approved the disposal on the recommendation of the EMB.

“[BOC] had those wastes for two years and they can’t even give us two weeks to be informed and for us to inform our constituents,” Yap said.

Colayco said MCMWC was performing a task for the national government.

Since the project is within the Clark Special Economic Zone, Clark Development Corp. (CDC) should be the primary body to regulate the transport and dumping, he said.

‘Precedent-setting’

In a statement, Rene Pineda, vice president of EcoWaste Coalition, said his group was supporting the Tarlac government and its people in their effort to stop a “precedent-setting” disposal of illegal trash from Canada and to ensure the protection of the public health and the environment.

Canada, Pineda said, “cannot simply bury the evidence of this case of gross environmental injustice in our soil and get away with it.” Tonette Orejas, Inquirer Central Luzon