THE Environmental Task Force Against Illegal E-Waste Imports to the Philippines (END E-Waste Imports) joined protests against the fifth State of the Nation Address (SONA) of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday. It called on the government to ensure that the country “does not turn into a dumping ground for hazardous e-waste from countries in the global north,” according to its statement posted on the page of environmental group BAN Toxics.
In June, the task force exposed the shipment of 234 containers of suspected e-waste and one container of plastic waste from the United States that entered the Subic Freeport between March 2025 and June 2026.
“The group has asserted that the US shipments are illegal, and constitute a criminal act under the Basel Convention, a global environmental treaty designed to combat toxic waste trade, to which the Philippines is a signatory and the US is not,” the group noted.
The convention said that “a Party shall not permit hazardous wastes or other wastes to be exported to a non-Party or to be imported from a non-Party.”
“The unimpeded entry of e-waste into Subic infringes upon our country’s regulatory authority over our territory. Such activities run contrary to the State policy of safeguarding the sovereignty, territorial integrity and environmental protection embodied in our Constitution,” BAN Toxics Deputy Executive Director Jam Lorenzo said.
Lorenzo also welcomed the Bureau of Customs (BOC) stopping a fresh batch of suspected e-waste shipments from the US, which were in three containers that arrived aboard the MV Tokyo Express on July 22 and were declared as scrap copper from the US.
“We welcome this initial move by the BOC, but it cannot stop here. Other concerned regulatory agencies must follow suit, without delay. President Marcos still stands at the Rubicon. Will he cross it for the people, or retreat for US interests? US authorities must respect our national sovereignty and stop exporters from dumping their waste to our country,” Lorenzo said.
The task force also called for the ratification of the Basel Ban Amendment, which would prohibit Annex VII Parties to the Basel Convention from exporting hazardous waste to developing countries such as the Philippines.
