DOJ to prosecute 4 Customs personnel over Canadian garbage

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the filing of charges in court against four Bureau of Customs (BOC) personnel over the tons of garbage from Canada that were illegally shipped to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014.

Prosecutors found basis to charge BOC examiners Benjamin Perez Jr. and Eufracio Ednaco, and appraisers Matilda Bacongan and Jose Saromo, for violation of the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1990, according to the resolution approved by Prosecutor General Benedicto Malcontento.

The DOJ said the four “knew, or were supposed to know” that the items were hazardous materials and not plastic scrap materials as declared in the shipping documents.

“After all, they claimed to have physically examined the subject importations. When they rerouted these shipments to ‘green’ [low risk], they effectively facilitated the importation of hazardous waste into the Philippines,” the resolution states.

The department dismissed the same complaint against former Environmental Management Bureau director Juan Miguel Cuna and three EMB employees for lack of probable cause. The DOJ also junked the graft complaint against all eight respondents due to insufficient evidence.

It was the National Bureau of Investigation that forwarded the complaints to the DOJ in January last year, months after the Philippines sent back the trash to Canada in compliance with the order of President Rodrigo Duterte.

Following the repatriation of the garbage, the government lifted the ban on government trips to Canada and directed the recalled ambassador and consuls to return to their posts. —KBK, GMA News