EcoWaste Coalition, protesters picket Canadian embassy
Published Apr 29, 2019 12:56 pm
By Chito Chavez
Irate protesters trooped to the Canadian embassy on Monday to press for the immediate return of Canada’s illegal garbage languishing in the country since 2013.
(ECOWASTE COALITION / FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)
Led by environmental group EcoWaste Coalition, the demonstrators brought a shipping container bedecked with trash representing the 103 containers of misdeclared garbage exports from Canada.
The garbage from Canada arrived in the country in batches at the Port of Manila from 2013 to 2014.
They also told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the “time was up” for Canada’s waste dumping.
The call was made a week after President Duterte issued an ultimatum to the Canadian government asking for the re-export of their overstaying wastes in the country.
Unmindful of the scorching heat of the sun, the protesters wielded a huge banner that read: “Canada: Comply with the Basel Convention. Take back your garbage now,” as well as placards stressing "No more promises" and “Philippines is not a dumpsite.”
“We have patiently waited for years for Prime Minister Trudeau to make good on his promise to resolve this long-running dumping controversy,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition.
“When he first came to Manila in 2015, he said a ‘Canadian solution’ is being developed to address the issue, and when he returned in 2017, he said ‘it is now theoretically possible to get (the wastes) back.’ It’s now second quarter of 2019 and the Canadian wastes are still rotting here,” she added.
Lucero noted that “we are fed up of failed promises. Now is the time for Canada to announce when exactly are they taking back their garbage in compliance to its obligations under the Basel Convention. The wastes have nowhere to go but Canada where the wastes have to be processed and treated in an environmentally responsible way’’.
In insisting on Canada’s responsibility to repossess their garbage, the EcoWaste Coalition cited a freshly-issued legal opinion by lawyers at the Victoria BC-based Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation (CELL) “that Canada has violated the Basel Convention in respect of the transboundary movements of wastes from Canada to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014.”
As the 14th Basel Convention Conference of the Parties started on April 29 in Geneva, Switzerland, the EcoWaste Coalition urged the Canadian government to publicly announce the take-back date and plan for its dumped wastes in the Philippines to demonstrate its commitment to the treaty and its treaty obligations.
To prevent future illegal dumping in any country, the group called on both Canada and the Philippines to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment, which aims to protect “developing countries in controlling imports of hazardous and other wastes they were unable to manage in an environmentally sound manner but continued to receive.”
(ECOWASTE COALITION / FACEBOOK / MANILA BULLETIN)
Led by environmental group EcoWaste Coalition, the demonstrators brought a shipping container bedecked with trash representing the 103 containers of misdeclared garbage exports from Canada.
The garbage from Canada arrived in the country in batches at the Port of Manila from 2013 to 2014.
They also told Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that the “time was up” for Canada’s waste dumping.
The call was made a week after President Duterte issued an ultimatum to the Canadian government asking for the re-export of their overstaying wastes in the country.
Unmindful of the scorching heat of the sun, the protesters wielded a huge banner that read: “Canada: Comply with the Basel Convention. Take back your garbage now,” as well as placards stressing "No more promises" and “Philippines is not a dumpsite.”
“We have patiently waited for years for Prime Minister Trudeau to make good on his promise to resolve this long-running dumping controversy,” said Aileen Lucero, National Coordinator, EcoWaste Coalition.
“When he first came to Manila in 2015, he said a ‘Canadian solution’ is being developed to address the issue, and when he returned in 2017, he said ‘it is now theoretically possible to get (the wastes) back.’ It’s now second quarter of 2019 and the Canadian wastes are still rotting here,” she added.
Lucero noted that “we are fed up of failed promises. Now is the time for Canada to announce when exactly are they taking back their garbage in compliance to its obligations under the Basel Convention. The wastes have nowhere to go but Canada where the wastes have to be processed and treated in an environmentally responsible way’’.
In insisting on Canada’s responsibility to repossess their garbage, the EcoWaste Coalition cited a freshly-issued legal opinion by lawyers at the Victoria BC-based Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation (CELL) “that Canada has violated the Basel Convention in respect of the transboundary movements of wastes from Canada to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014.”
As the 14th Basel Convention Conference of the Parties started on April 29 in Geneva, Switzerland, the EcoWaste Coalition urged the Canadian government to publicly announce the take-back date and plan for its dumped wastes in the Philippines to demonstrate its commitment to the treaty and its treaty obligations.
To prevent future illegal dumping in any country, the group called on both Canada and the Philippines to ratify the Basel Ban Amendment, which aims to protect “developing countries in controlling imports of hazardous and other wastes they were unable to manage in an environmentally sound manner but continued to receive.”