Customs unit formed to stop import of hazardous waste

The Bureau of Customs has created an Environmental Protection and Compliance Division (EPCD) to monitor and control the entry of hazardous substances and other wastes into the country, in response to a recent directive by Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez III.

The creation of the EPCD was in response to the Finance chief’s order last July to BOC Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero to form a special unit at the agency to guard against the entry of waste materials that other countries are attempting to dump in the Philippines.

“This ‘strike team’ should work in tandem with other concerned government agencies in mounting a 24/7 watch over, and prevent, the entry of hazardous or toxic wastes into our country, in keeping with our environmental laws,” Dominguez said.

Dominguez issued the directive during a recent Department of Finance executive committee meeting after Guerrero reported that he had called on his counterparts in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations to strengthen the law enforcement capabilities of the organization’s member-states, not only in the war against drug trafficking, but also in preventing the region from being a dumping ground for the hazardous materials and wastes of other countries.

Guerrero said his fellow customs officials from Asean reacted positively to his proposal.

In response, Dominguez said during the DOF Execom meeting that “it’s time we put up something like an environmental unit in the Customs [bureau] to really act on this garbage issue.”

Following Dominguez’s directive, Guerrero issued Customs Memorandum Order No. 38-2019, institutionalizing the EPCD, which will become a permanent and specialized unit within the bureau.

The EPCD’s mandate covers monitoring the processing of shipments of hazardous substances, waste products, nuclear wastes, recyclable products or substances under the regulatory control of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).

Under Republic Act No. 6969 or the Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control Act of 1999, the BOC being one of the regulatory agencies, is mandated to assist the DENR in monitoring and preventing the entry of hazardous and nuclear wastes into the country.

The new division, which will be under the BOC’s Enforcement and Security Service of the Enforcement Group, is also tasked to recommend the issuance of alert orders and prelodgment control orders against shipments suspected of containing goods in violation of the Customs Modernization and Tariff Act (CMTA) and environmental laws.

It is also tasked to investigate cases and to make recommendations for prosecution of violations of CMTA, in relation to environmental and other applicable laws, rules and regulations.