A pay loader scoops up mounds of garbage from South Korea which was illegally dumped in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental. The Bureau of Customs has made three shipments of the wastes back to their country of origin in accordance with the Basel Convention.
MindaNews photo taken 20 February 2020 by FROILAN GALLARDO
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 20 February) – The sheer volume of the remaining household wastes in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental prompted Bureau of Customs (BoC) officials to postpone the scheduled shipment back to its port of origin in South Korea on Sunday.
BoC port collector John Simon said the remaining wastes could not be accommodated in one cargo ship.
“The shipper lied in their declaration. This is simply too much for 5,100 metric tons,” Simon said pointing at the mounds of household wastes still in the open facility of Verde Soko Corporation, the shipper in Sitio Buguac, Tagoloan.
He said workers from the Philippine Sinter Corporation and the Department of Works and Public Highways have been working round the clock to ready the wastes for shipment on Sunday, Feb.
23.
He said a pay loader and a bagging hopper have made the work faster but mounds of garbage were still lying around.
“The workers have bagged enough wastes to fill 50 container vans but still there are so much wastes lying around,” he said.
A pay loader drops garbage, which was illegally dumped in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, into a bagging hopper for shipment back to South Korea. The Bureau of Customs has made three shipments of the wastes back to their country of origin in accordance with the Basel Convention. MindaNews photo taken 20 February 2020 by FROILAN GALLARDO
Simon said 2,500 metric tons of the remaining wastes was scheduled to be shipped back to its port of origin in Pyeongtaek, South Korea this Sunday.
Officials of Verde Soko could no longer be found after the National Bureau of Investigation filed criminal charges against them.
The shipment of household wastes arrived here in two shipments in 2019.
The second shipment of 1,400 metric tons which arrived here in August 2018, was already shipped back to Pyeongtaek in January 2019.
Early this year, 5,100 tons of the wastes were sent back in two shipments. (Froilan Gallardo/MindaNews)
