30 November 2018, Quezon City. The environmental groups EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Southeast Asia \u2013 Philippines welcomed the assurance made by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that the tons of illegally imported garbage from South Korea will be returned to its origin soon.<\/p>\n
Speaking at the protest action organized by the\u00a0EcoWaste\u00a0Coalition last Wednesday, BOC Spokesperson Atty. Erastus Sandino Austria assured the group\u00a0 and the general public that necessary steps are being taken by the customs authorities to resolve the illegal garbage imports from South Korea.<\/p>\n
\u201cMessage heard, loud and clear,\u201d Austria told the\u00a0EcoWaste\u00a0Coalition, referring to the group\u2019s non-violent action at the Port Area in Manila to push for the speedy repatriation of the misdeclared garbage as demanded by the provincial government of Misamis Oriental, the municipal government of Togoloan, and pro-environment groups.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn behalf of the BOC, we can say we can send the garbage out of the country before the end of the year.\u00a0\u00a0Ang isyu na lang kasi dito ay logistics\u00a0(the only issue here is logistics),\u201d said Austria.\u00a0 BOC through the Collection District of Cagayan de Oro, he said, had already initiated talks with the government of South Korea through its Embassy to fast track the re-export of the waste shipments to Pyeongtaek City.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe laud Atty. Austria for accepting our invitation for him to address our assembly, and for confirming \u00a0that efforts are underway to get the Korean garbage shipped back to where it should be.\u00a0 However, we seek a specific date for the re-export of garbage to Korea. The overstaying garbage from Canada provides a compelling reason why a defined date should be set and adhered to,\u201d\u00a0she emphasized.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope that the re-export will not be stalled by bureaucratic excuses.\u00a0The BOC must exercise its mandate and be on top of this issue.\u00a0 It is\u00a0\u2028one thing to recognize the Filipino people\u2019s clamor to return the South\u00a0\u00a0Korean waste back to its origin, but Filipinos need to be assured, with\u00a0\u2028concrete actions, that it is actually done this year,\u201d stated Abigail Aguilar, Campaigner, Greenpeace Southeast Asia-Philippines.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy the time any probe is conducted by the House of Representatives or the Senate, we hope the illegal garbage shipments would already be out of the Philippines and the places where these were dumped safely cleaned up,\u201d Lucero added.<\/p>\n
To date, Senators Koko Pimentel, Nancy Binay and Grace Poe have filed separate resolutions calling for an inquiry on the matter in aid of legislation.\u00a0 Iligan City Representative Fredrick Siao has likewise proposed a Congressional inquiry.<\/p>\n
In their letter to BOC Commissioner Rey Guerrero, the\u00a0EcoWaste\u00a0Coalition sought his commitment to get the Korean garbage out of the Philippine territory before Christmas and not beyond December 31, 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cBOC\u2019s rapid action will send a clear and unequivocal signal to waste traffickers that the Philippines\u00a0 is taking strong action against illegal waste export\u00a0 to protect public health and the environment, and uphold the national dignity and sovereignty,\u201d the group pointed out.\u00a0\u2028\u2028The\u00a0EcoWaste\u00a0Coalition urged Commissioner Guerrero and the BOC to:<\/p>\n
\u2028\u2028References:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n https:\/\/pia.gov.ph\/news\/articles\/1015599 Our coastlines are among the most impacted by plastic pollution in the world. Be part of the solutions!<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t The environmental groups EcoWaste Coalition and Greenpeace Southeast Asia \u2013 Philippines welcomed the assurance made by the Bureau of Customs (BOC) that the tons of illegally imported garbage from South Korea will be returned to its origin soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":48,"featured_media":1867,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"","p4_local_project":"","p4_basket_name":"","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[8,17],"p4-page-type":[14],"class_list":["post-1082","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sustainability","tag-plastic","tag-pollution","p4-page-type-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/48"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1082"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11312,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1082\/revisions\/11312"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1082"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1082"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/philippines\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=1082"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nhttps:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Xb_qMpshWqg\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\t\t\t