Japan will dump in Philippines not only waste but also goods via JPEPA — group

DENR contradicts owns claims on JPEPA’s hazardous waste issue

The Japan Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA) will bring about a flood of hazardous wastes and a tsunami of Japanese goods against defenseless Filipino industries, green activist group Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (Kalikasan PNE) said today.

“The JPEPA will not only turn our country into a dumping ground of waste; it will also make the Philippines a convenient ground of excess goods from Japan,” Kalikasan PNE National Coordinator Clemente Bautista Jr. said today in a statement.

“This will eliminate and crush Philippine domestic industries which are already struggling to stay afloat,” Bautista said.

“In the JPEPA, no protection is offered for most Philippine products, except for rice and salt. Aside from a deluge of grave environmental problems, the JPEPA is also expected to bring about a massive wave or tsunami of Japanese goods to which Filipino industries have no defense ,” Bautista stressed.

Bautista also scored the government’s own Environment bureau for “making excuses to approve such an environmentally and economically devastating bilateral trade deal”.

“The DENR is contradicting itself in its hurried and poorly-supported defense of the JPEPA,” he added.

Bautista rebutted “contradictory statements made by DENR Usec Demetrio Ignacio, which simultaneously implies that the Philippines can not handle its hazardous domestic waste yet can process foreign hazardous waste from Japan”.

Usec Ignacio previously asserted that the JPEPA would facilitate the continued shipment by the Philippines of hazardous waste to Japan, but not the other way around, saying that RP’s waste exports to nine countries, including Japan, totaled 11.4-million kg in 2005, 10.7 million in 2006, and some 1.7-million kg as of July 2007.

However, Bautista noted, Usec Demetrio conceded that JPEPA would allow the importation of recyclable materials with hazardous substances but which have “economic value”, including scrap metals, scrap plastic materials, electronic assemblies and scrap, used oil, fly ash and acid batteries, as these can be processed by local treatment facilities for re-sale.

“The DENR’s “assurance” that hazardous waste imports under JPEPA can be processed by local recycling treatment facilities definitely contradicts their earlier statement that the Philippines has been exporting waste to nine other countries because it lacks adequate waste treatment facilities,” Bautista noted.

“If the Arroyo administration is forced to export ten million tons of hazardous waste annually since 2005 since local recycling facilities are finding it difficult to process the sheer volume of domestic waste, then obviously the government should not be entering a trade deal which would allow the importation of even more trash from Japan ,” Bautista said. ###

IMPORTANT NOTICE: INBOX is an archive of press releases, statements, announcements, letters to the editors, and manifestos sent to PinoyPress for publication. Please email your materials to pinoypress @ gmail.com. PinoyPress is not responsible for the content of these materials. The opinion expessed in these items does not reflect those of PinoyPress and its staff. Please refer to our terms of use/disclaimer.