Official Government Open Burn Pit

Did you know that LGUs in the Philippines do not have access to official or appropriate incineration facilities?  Take a look at this story. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1194896

An estimated PHP1.4 million worth of undocumented table eggs from Bantayan Island, Cebu were confiscated and burned by quarantine personnel upon arrival at Bredco port here earlier this week, the City Veterinary Office (CVO) confirmed on Friday.

The shipment of 240,000 pieces or 8,000 trays of eggs arrived in this city on Jan. 5, records showed.

“The permit of the shipper has already expired and no other pertinent documents were also presented,” Dr. Maria Agueda de la Torre, city veterinarian, said in a statement.

The shipping permit is being issued by the Bureau of Animal Industry-National Veterinary Quarantine Services Division (BAI-NVQSD).

Last December, the Negros Occidental provincial government and the city government have jointly prohibited the entry of live birds and poultry products such as meat and eggs from areas affected by the highly pathogenic avian influenza or bird flu, particularly Luzon, Mindanao, and the neighboring islands of Panay and Guimaras.

Negros Occidental has a PHP8-billion poultry industry and is among the top poultry-producing provinces in the country.

However, Bantayan is the province’s traditional supplier of table eggs, with some 7.4 million eggs even brought in from the neighboring island in December, records of the Provincial Veterinary Office (PVO) earlier showed.

As part of the enforcement operations on the poultry ban, composite teams from the PVO, CVO, Department of Agriculture, and BAI-VQS Western Visayas (Region 6) are being deployed in the city’s major ports to prevent the entry of prohibited and undocumented poultry products.

In Western Visayas, the ban covers the Panay Island provinces of Iloilo, Capiz, Antique and Aklan.

Exemptions are allowed for raw poultry meat, both processed and unprocessed; day-old chicks and hatching eggs, including broiler, layer, and breeder; and embryonated eggs, popularly known as “balut.”

These commodities will be allowed entry regardless of shipping origin subject to compliance with requirements.

The gist is that eggs were imported illegally and were disposed but look at the picture!! Instead of properly disposing of these eggs, which could have various pathogens, in a proper incinerator they are being burned in the dirt outside! They were then buried.

https://www.sunstar.com.ph/article/1953192/bacolod/local-news/victorias-mayor-expresses-dismay-after-seized-8000-trays-of-eggs-worth-p14m-destroyed

VICTORIAS City Mayor Javi Benitez expressed dismay after the confiscated 8,000 trays of eggs worth P1.4 million at Bredco Port in Bacolod City on February 5 were destroyed.

City Veterinarian Ma. Agueda dela Torre said Friday the confiscated eggs were transported from Bantayan, Cebu, to the Bredco Port.

She said the driver of the truck failed to present pertinent documents to transport the eggs, adding that the confiscated items were burned and buried at the Bredco Port grounds.

Dela Torre said this is in compliance with the joint executive order of Bacolod City and Negros Occidental that safeguards the province from avian influenza.

Not only is open burning illegal and unhealthy, THE STINK!, but it could be that some viruses survive to make their revenge. 

This is just another Philippine fail but it does not stop here because when it comes to medical waste and confiscated drugs it appears that the Philippines does not have proper incineration facilities anywhere in the nation.

https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/1551204/pandemic-sheds-light-on-medical-waste-disposal-woes

Data from the DENR showed that as of June 30, 2021, the total generated health care waste in the Philippines has reached 634,000,687.73 metric tons. The department also emphasized the country’s lack of treatment, storage and disposal (TSD) facilities, which are requirements in handling the mountain of medical wastes being generated every day.

“Our TSD facilities are not enough to cater to the health care waste generated nationwide,” said Visminda Osorio, DENR-Environmental Management Bureau assistant director, in September last year.

Osorio said there are currently only 10 TSDs capable of treating medical wastes in eight regions—Central Luzon, NCR, Calabarzon, Ilocos Region, Bicol Region, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas and Northern Mindanao.

“Right now, what we are doing is those health care waste facilities are advised to do the initial disinfection prior to disposal, and part of the regions that have no TSD facility, they do it through safe burial or concrete vaulting within the premises,” she added.

Instances of improperly discarded medical wastes had been around even before the pandemic.

In 2019, authorities discovered medical wastes like used syringes, kidney trays, chemical bottles, tubes containing blood samples, and several gloves near the shores of Barangay Ibo in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu province.

The DENR in Central Visayas had to scour the seas around Mactan Island for more hospital wastes.

A year before, medical wastes—syringes, dextrose bottles, vials and biological waste—were found floating on a creek at Barangay Taloy Sur in Tuba town, Benguet province.

Tossing medical waste into the ocean is not just gross it is unconscionable. 

Take a look at what one town did to stop the spread of African Swine Fever. 

https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1197470

More than 200 kilos of frozen and other pork by-products have been confiscated from public markets in this capital and nearby Valencia town of Negros Oriental province amid tightened measures to prevent the entry of the African swine fever (ASF).

Dr. Alfonso Tundag, quarantine officer of the Bureau of Animal Industry (BAI) here, on Wednesday said the confiscation on Tuesday was just the beginning of similar activities to ensure that the province will remain ASF-free.

Joint teams from the BAI, provincial veterinary office, and local government unit (LGU) took down from the shelves and confiscated “unauthorized” frozen and processed products like longganiza, chorizo, hotdogs, and siomai, manufactured on Feb. 8 or earlier.

By this, he meant those that did not have labels, product and manufacturer information, and list of ingredients, with most of them coming from Cebu province.

The confiscated items were treated with chemicals and buried.

Isn't that great? They buried allegedly tainted meat and treated it with chemicals before covering it with dirt. Now the sound is poisoned. And who knows how that will affect the water table. The fact is local governments need access to proper incineration facilities. If not then there will continue to be dire environmental consequences as in the two examples above.