Group to South Korea: Take back your trash

QUEZON City-based toxic watch­dog EcoWaste Coalition yesterday staged a rally in front of the South Korean embassy demanding the return to its country of the 5,100 tons of garbage currently sitting at the Mindanao International Container Terminal (MICT) in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, and warehouse in Cagayan de Oro City.

The group submitted a letter to South Korean Ambassador Han Dong-man urging his government to act decisively to ensure the speedy return of the imported garbage from his country.

Dubbed as the “Korea: Basura Out of the Philippines (K-BOP)’’ ac­tion, EcoWaste Coalition expressed disgust as the 5,100 metric tons of waste material contained used dextrose tubes, diapers, batteries, bulbs and electronic equipment, impounded at the MICT that were misdeclared as “plastic synthetic flakes” as reported by the Bureau of Customs (BoC).

The BoC report also noted that hundreds of giant bales of garbage were also discovered at a Cagayan de Oro warehouse.

“As the first ASEAN country to establish diplomatic relations with the Republic of Korea in 1949, as an active supporter of the peace and reconciliation efforts in the Korean peninsula, as a major trad­ing partner, and as the nation of some 66,000 Filipinos working or living in South Korea, we strongly believe that the Philippines, a sov­ereign country, deserves not to be treated as a garbage dump,” said Eileen Sison, president of EcoW­aste Coalition. (Chito Chavez)