Seventy shipments of trash from Hong Kong were intercepted by the Bureau of Customs before those were illegally dumped into the country, an official said Thursday.
That was after customs authorities in Mindanao discovered the shipments of electronic waste before the shipments could enter the Mindanao Container Terminal sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental.
MCT sub-port collector John Simon said the shipments were not allowed to be unloaded from a container ship after learning those contained waste.
The shipments were the same type imported by a Pasay City-based company, Crowd Win Industrial Limited Corp.
“Crowd Win Industrial Limited Corp. was the same company that imported a shipment of assorted electronic accessories, but the actual content of the container van turned out to be smashed components of electronic devices, Simon said.
The 2.561 tons of electronic waste from Hong Kong were eventually sent back to their point of origin by Customs on June 5, 2019, he said.
The cargo, consisting mainly of shredded gadget parts and plastic scraps packed in 22 huge sling bags, arrived at the Mindanao Container Terminal sub-port in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental on Feb. 2 and was put on hold by Customs for “misdeclaration.”
The imported garbage was shipped back to its point of origin on board the cargo ship SITC Nagoya, Simon said.
The Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency was also invited to inspect the container to determine the possible presence of illegal drugs but it found nothing.
The return of the mixed waste was coordinated with the Environmental Protection Department of the Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, and is expected to arrive in Hong Kong on June 10, 2019.
The expense in the reexportation of the shipment was shouldered by the Hong Kong government.