interest groups across the country have thrown their support behind a
well-timed proposal by Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago for legislative action
against waste dumping from overseas.
Senator Santiago yesterday filed resolution number 919 calling for an inquiry
in aid of legislation “to decisively prevent illegal waste dumping from abroad”
amid the long drawn-out problem with the 50 container vans of hazardous waste
shipment from Canada that are still sitting in Manila’s port and leaking
garbage juice.
Senator Santiago cited “the ratification of the ‘Basel Convention Ban
Amendment’ and other legal measures to protect the country from becoming a
global dump for hazardous wastes.”
The “Ban Amendment” to the “Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of
Hazardous Wastes,” introduced in 1995, prohibits highly industrialized
countries from exporting hazardous wastes to developing countries “for final
disposal, reuse, recycling and recovery.” The “Basel Convention Ban Amendment”
has yet to enter into force.
The proposal from the feisty senator drew instant cheers from a broad array of
academic, environmental, legal, religious and diverse people’s organizations
from Luzon, Visayas, Mindanao and the National Capital Region.
“Unless the Philippine government ratifies the Basel Ban amendment and reflects
its intent in our national laws, the country will continue to be a recipient of
hazardous garbage from overseas, made possible under the guise of recycling or
recovery,” said Von Hernandez, President of the EcoWaste Coalition and Executive
Director of Greenpeace Southeast Asia.
“As we have seen with the Canadian waste shipments, unscrupulous waste traders
are exploiting that recycling loophole to accomplish and justify this
reprehensible practice. We are already struggling to manage the wastes being
generated within our shores. Why should we allow other nations to treat the
Philippines as their dumpsite?,” he added.
“With Miriam at the helm of the
Committee on Foreign Relations, we expect the Senate to grant its concurrence
to the Basel Ban Amendment without delay. Protecting our nation from the
real threat of hazardous waste dumping is a patriotic duty that should unite
all the senators. The early ratification would surely boost the Senate’s
sagging public approval ratings,” said Sonia Mendoza, Chairman, Mother Earth
Foundation.
Among the leading environmental advocacy networks backing Senator Santiago’s
proposal for decisive measures to put a stop to hazardous waste dumping were
Aksyon Klima, Cavite Green Coalition, EcoWaste Coalition, Green Convergence and
the Save Sierra Madre Network Alliance.
Lawyers Harry Roque of the UP Center for International Law and the UP
Institute of International Legal Studies, Marlon Manuel of the Alternative Law
Groups and Gloria Estenzo-Ramos of Oceana Philippines also support
Senator Santiago’s action to resolutely end hazardous waste
dumping.
backing Senator Miriam Defensor Santiago’s call for “inquiry, in aid of
legislation, on ways to decisively prevent illegal waste dumping from abroad,
including the ratification of the ‘Basel Convention Ban Amendment’ and other
legal measures to protect the country from becoming a global dump for hazardous
wastes.”
FROM LUZON, INCLUDING THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
Akbayan Youth
Justice
NCRR
Advocating Philippine Environmental Sustainability
Ecological Society of the Philippines
People
Alliance -Philippines
Alternatives
Asia
Educational and Ecological Alternatives
Center
Sining at Kultura
Our Lady of Pillar Parish
San Jose Manggagawa
Campaign for the Environment
Area
Small Farmers and Fishers Organizations
Organization of the Philippines, Inc.
Society, Inc.
saTalipapa
Kaunlaran, Cavite
Inc.
Studies
Philippines
Justice
Coordinator, Alternative Law Groups)
Adventist University of the Philippines
II.
FROM THE VISAYAS:
Environment
Lungsod – Cebu
Sugbo
City
FROM MINDANAO:
Beneficiaries Association
Beneficiaries Cooperative
Association
Industry Development Coalition
Inc.,
Association Inc.,
Kabanikanhan Alang sa Kausaban
Cooperative
TOWER, Inc.