PRESS STATEMENT
01 July 2018
The Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment welcomes the Ombudsman’s suspension order against DENR undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna over the incident involving the importation of 103 container vans of hazardous and domestic waste from Canada in 2013 and 2014.
DENR Secretary Roy Cimatu should immediately suspend his subordinate, who was the previous administration’s head of the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) that cleared the way for the importation of Canadian trash despite the lack of details in the import registry made by the local importer.
Nevertheless, the punishment of three months’ suspension is a mere slap to the wrist compared to the damage caused to our environment by this official’s willful neglect, not to mention the fact that it is long overdue, with the official’s gross negligence happening five years ago.
More importantly, concerned agencies must fast-track the return of these wastes to Canada where they came from. Legislation should also be amended to increase the penalties and weight of punishment on government officials and businessmen who have committed environmental crimes of this magnitude in order to send the message that such incidents will not be taken lightly.
Among those wastes that the Bureau of Customs discovered were used diapers and an undetermined number of electronic waste such as batteries. These gigantic tons of idled trash staying at the port of Manila Bay remain a landmine of potential public health and environmental hazards that would affect the well-being of the people and of the coasts of Manila Bay, the longer that those trash stay there.
As a supposedly responsible member of the international community, the Canadian government must go well and above the requirements of the Basel Convention that regulates the transport of waste between countries. It should hold Chronic Plastic Incorporated accountable and compel that company to take back the trash it exported, at no cost to Filipino coffers. #
