‘We are not the world’s trash bin’

Environmental groups are reporting that the Canadian firm in the center of a firestorm for shipping hazardous wastes into the country had actually sent more garbage to the Southeast Asian nation.
BAN Toxics, the Seattle-based Basel Action Network, and Greenpeace Philippines, in a joint statement, said another 48 containers of “rotting household garbage” “has been sitting for over a year at the Manila International Container Port (MICP) and is just now undergoing abandonment proceedings under the Bureau of Customs as the consignee — Live Green Enterprise failed to claim the shipment.”
The groups said the garbage was “illegally” shipped to the country by Chronics Inc., the same company that sent 50 container vans of waste that has prompted an international campaign to pressure Canada to take it back, according to TV5.
Groups waging the campaign had earlier urged President Benigno Aquino III to take up the issue of the garbage during his recent state visit to Canada. However, this call apparently went unheeded and environmental groups have slammed the government for agreeing to process and dispose of the 50 vans of waste.
“This is insult to injury,” Richard Gutierrez, BAN Toxics executive director, said. “Canada’s callous disregard for international law is simply not acceptable anymore.”
“We had warned President Aquino about the consequences of letting Canada push us around by agreeing to bury their first illegal shipment on Philippine soil. How long will the Philippines be willing to submit to what is nothing less than waste colonialism?” he added.
“The chorus of voices from Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago to street protests clearly have demonstrated the displeasure of Filipinos to be continuously subjected to the indignity of becoming the world’s trash bin,” Abi Aguilar of Greenpeace Philippines said. “Canada must do the right thing and take back all of these illegal shipments immediately.”
The groups pointed out that the Basel Convention bans the export of household wastes to other countries “without prior notification and consent,” which they said Canada failed to do.
They added that, under the Convention, “Canada should repatriate the waste and prosecute the exporter criminally.”
The environmentalists said Customs officials informed them that the newly discovered waste had been “misdeclared as recycled plastics rather than household waste” and “could pose health and environmental risks.” 
Meanwhile Philippine Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago has filed a resolution urging the government to force Canada to take back the stinking containers of waste it illegally exported into Philippine soil since 2013.
The feisty senator, who heads the Senate committee on foreign relations said:
“This issue goes beyond waste management and threatens our sovereignty. I am alarmed that the government seems willing to say that we are an international trash bin out of fear of ruffling Canada’s feathers,”.
Malacañan has earlier ruled out negotiations to return the illegal shipment to Canada. A multi-agency task force has also allegedly agreed to locally process the waste, which includes household waste such as used adult diapers.
“The decision to process the waste in the Philippines upon the request of the Canadian government sets a dangerous precedent for other countries to dump their waste in Philippine soil with impunity,” Santiago said in the Senate Resolution No. 1431.
She added that the garbage from Canada is covered by a provision in the Basel Convention, noting that Annex 2 of the international agreement explains that “other wastes” include those collected from households.