Government to return waste shipments to South Korea

MANILA, Philippines — The government is set to send 51 shipping containers loaded with some 6,500 tons of waste back to South Korea next week, a Bureau of Customs (BOC) official bared yesterday.

In a press conference organized by environmental group Ecowaste Coalition, Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) port collector John Simon announced that the containers are set to be returned to their origin in Pyeongtaek City on Jan. 9.

“We expect the 51 garbage-filled containers stored at MICT to be homebound by Jan. 9, provided that all regulatory requirements are readily available. Their expedited re-export is what BOC wants and this is what our people are yearning for,” Simon explained.

The BOC official said the re-exportation will cost the government around P2.5 million in expenses.

Simon stressed that the 51 containers of garbage will be sent back to South Korea after the consignee, Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp., failed to secure an import permit from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources. 

The importer had misdeclared the garbage shipments as plastic synthetic flakes, which arrived in Mindanao last July and October. 

Apart from the shipments, Simon said the remaining garbage at the Verde Soko compound in Barangay Santa Cruz in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental would also be re-exported.

The re-exportation order is pursuant to the provisions of Republic Act 10863 or the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act, Republic Act 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act and the Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and Their Disposal.

The return of the containers is part of the agreement entered into by the two governments during a bilateral meeting between Philippine and South Korean officials last Dec. 27 and 28 in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.