Archer’s biggest battle

Kit Cojuangco has always been a straight arrow. As a member of the Philippine national archery team until 2011, the vice-governor of Tarlac has always maintained that the best way to do things is the right way to do things. As an athlete, sportsman and public servant, Cojuangco is now in the biggest battle of his political career. In some ways, he’s the one with a target painted on him, or at least his seat in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan or provincial board of his province.

Each week, the Provincial Board meets at the capitol in Tarlac City. As part of their protocol, they allow a “Question Hour” wherein issues, problems and possible projects may be brought up by citizens of the province and other private groups. In the 18th regular session, concerned citizens of Bamban led by Diana Figueroa gave an exposé on what they found to be waste from Canada being dumped in Kalangitan landfill, which also encompasses Capas. Cojuangco asked for evidence. 

It turns out that as early as 2013, the shipments, which went through the ports in Manila and Subic before being delivered in a clandestine, roundabout fashion to Tarlac, were already a source of complaints for emitting foul odors of unknown substances. In August of 2014, the Bureau of Customs was already calling for the help of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Department of Justice (DOJ) in dealing with this issue, and asking the Canadian government to meetings to resolve the matter. Not much progress was achieved, and the exporter and importer of the wastes were allegedly hard to track down. Based on shipping manifests, 55 containers entered the Philippines in 2013; another 48 containers in 2014, making a total of 103.

“I’m talking to everyone: NGOs, church groups, civic society, opponents, LAKAS, media, Iglesia ni Cristo, Christian groups, everyone,” says Cojuangco, whose new battle has taken time away from planning programs for women’s basketball, pétanque and skateboarding in the province.  “I only ask one question. The question I ask everyone is, are you in favor or not of having foreign garbage dumped in our country? I haven’t had any Filipino that I know that says it’s okay for me to have garbage dumped on us.”

The Bureau of Customs claimed that they inspected three of the first 55 containers present, and found them to be simple heterogeneous plastic waste. But when the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) conducted a Waste Analysis and Characterization Study (WACS) report on one of the containers from the shipment, it said that “importation of such is also prohibited” under the Ecological Solid Wastes Management Act of 2000, and was in violation of the DENR’s Administrative Order “Interim Guidelines on the Importation of Recyclable Materials containing Hazardous Substances”. The report “maintains its position of shipping back the wastes to Canada with the Department of Foreign Affairs spearheading the bilateral negotiation”. The report also instructed the DFA to keep the Inter-Agency Committee apprised of further developments, and actions on the part of the Canadian government

At the beginning of August, the Basel Action Network (BAN), a group formed after Basel Convention in Switzerland in 1989 when a similar discovery of foreign toxic wastes was made in Africa and other developing countries, asked the United Nations to file a case against Canada for noncompliance. The Philippines and Canada are both signatories to the agreement, which was enforced beginning in 1992. BAN executive director Jim Puckett said that the convention is “at risk if we do not respond to one of the best publicized, egregious and unresolved cases we have seen in recent years. We ask that the secretariat take up this case and utilize the mechanism (for promoting implementation and compliance with the Basel Convention) as it was intended to be used.”

On June 25, the dumping in Kalangitan landfill started. As of this time, 26 containers have been dumped and buried. Eight have been impounded and padlocked. Seventy-seven containers are waiting in Subic to be dumped in Tarlac. Bureau of Customs allegedly entered into a contract with the landfill operator, which, according to Cojuangco, cannot be done because it violates a pre-existing contract with Tarlac Province, which states that Kalangitan operates solely to accept garbage from the provinces of Tarlac and Pampanga. The contract was expanded to accept municipal garbage from Baguio City and Metro Manila. The landfill is not allowed to accept hospital waste. The Tarlac provincial board discovered that the landfill was accepting hospital waste, claiming it was treated.

The fees for dumping different kinds of wastes vary. Ordinary, non-toxic municipal waste fetches a small price compared to other kinds of waste, such as hospital waste and so on. Some of the containers were found to have diapers and electronic equipment with exposed batteries, indicating there are chemicals in the unsegregated shipments. Given that circumstance, one must naturally assume that the entirety of each 40-foot container, which has been enclosed in the heat and various weather conditions during transport, is now contaminated. Given the fee of P 24,000 per ton, the entire collection of shipments would therefore cost in the vicinity of P 97,000,000 under Philippine law. Under US or Canadian law, a dollar price would prevail.

“There’s a big trade,” Cojuangco reveals. “It’s like animals tusks, like any drug trade.”

Cojuangco has found support in the Senate, as Sen. JV Ejercito helped with documenting the true nature of the waste, Meanwhile, Sen, Bongbong Marcos, who was coincidentally in Tarlac for consultations on the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), was Iikewise drawn to the issue as chairman of the upper chamber’s Committee on Local Government. Each has promised to conduct an investigation into the issue, and its possible impact on the health and safety of all concerned.

On July 14, three weeks after the dumping, Tarlac Gov. Vic Yap ordered an end to the dumping. However, a television crew from a leading broadcast network news program waiting outside the dumpsite recorded a shipment of five containers with the same markings entering the site at 5:53 p.m. the following day. On July 16, the Provincial Board held an investigative session, attended by representatives of the DENR, the landowner, and all agencies involved. On July 18, another shipment was allowed into the dumpsite, as well. It was only when media blew up the story and the Senate threatened to investigate did the dumping stop.

The entrance to the landfill in Capas has long been blocked for some time, for non-payment to the local government unit. The local government of Bamban, however, allowed the dumping to continue, sparking a row between its board and the mayor, who allegedly vetoed a vote closing down the entrance to the site. Upon hearing that Poro Point, La Union; Norzagaray, Bulacan; and San Mateo, Rizal were being considered as alternative dumping sites, Cojuangco forewarned the local governments in those areas.

“Many people think that I’m going to use this because I want to get into a position,” says Cojuangco, whose father, political patron and beloved sportsman Henry, died a few weeks ago. “I’m operating under the assumption of what I would have done when my father was still alive. If it’s about doing a good job, I can look you in the eye. I fixed the budget, I’ve done so many good things.”

Cojuangco is willing to stake his career as a public servant on this issue, if only for the future generations of his province. Sometimes, that’s what gets the job done, even if it paints a political bullseye on your chest.