Fire the ‘toxic trash’ in DENR

The Canada trash, the cutting of century-old trees in the former Army-Navy Club, the murder of Pamana, the Philippine eagle—these bad news greeted me upon my arrival as a balikbayan. The words of Teresa Montilla decrying the cutting of the trees, hounded me: “(The Department of Environment and Natural Resources) seems to have lost sight of its primary mandate and has become remiss in protecting the environment” (“How many more before we say ‘enough’?” Letters, 8/20/15).

Even when I’m abroad, I keep track of what’s happening to our country’s environment, so when I arrived, I myself made inquiries from the concerned offices and employees of the DENR. These are what I gathered: On the dumping of Canada trash in Capas, Tarlac, I learned it had the blessing of the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) director, lawyer Juan Miguel Cuna, who is now assistant secretary; and Undersecretary Jonas Leones, also a lawyer, who attended Harvard before Cuna. (How fortunate these government officials are to study in Harvard while receiving their salaries! How dare they betray their benefactors, the Filipino taxpayers, who suffer from their incredible actions!)

I detest the Canada trash dumping especially because I spent a good part of my life in Tarlac. I read about Leones announcing that the trash will not be shipped back to Canada—and that landfills where the trash would be dumped had been identified—because the Department of Foreign Affairs wanted to maintain “good diplomatic relations” with Canada. Besides, the wastes characterization analysis, which the DENR conducted on three (out of more than 50) container vans of Canada trash, showed that the contents were nonhazardous, he added (“Canadian trash ends up in President’s backyard,” Front Page, 7/10/15). With this token “test,” Leones sought to circumvent the Basel Convention provision which prevents the transfer of hazardous wastes from developed to developing nations. What gives, Leones?

On the cutting of trees, it appears this has the blessing of the EMB director for National Capital Region, Visminda Osorio. What gives, Osorio?

Leones, Osorio, Cuna, how many other permits have you given to mining, quarrying and other business firms for garbage dumping, tree cutting and such destructive activities?

So I learned “permitting” is the key word. How many other DENR people are there from other DENR units besides the EMB, who may not be issuing permits but are conniving with illegal loggers and other environmental criminals like those who denude our forests and decimate our biodiversity? Meanwhile, the DENR has a National Greening Program. I can only presume there must be a lot of goings-on there that is not green.

Environment Secretary Ramon Paje must clean up the long-stinking and terribly toxic trash in the EMB. Leones, Osorio, Cuna and their ilk should resign now! Or Paje should fire them!

—ROSARIO T. AQUINO, [email protected]