A Customs inspection of the vans from Canada revealed garbage. (Photo from Janet Reolope) A Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) undersecretary who allegedly cleared the entry into the country of several containers of garbage from Canada in 2013 is facing graft charges from the Ombudsman.

The Office of the Ombudsman said Friday it found probable cause to charge DENR Undersecretary Juan Miguel Cuna for violation of the anti-graft law after an investigation found that he issued a Registry Certificate for the Importation of Recyclable Materials Containing Hazardous Substances dated June 19, 2013 for the waste cargo despite the lack of details in the Importer’s Registry Sheet of Canadian-based company Chronic Plastics.

The constituted gross inexcusable negligence, according to the Ombudsman.

Chronic Plastics exported the container vans filled with garbage but declared the contents as plastic scrap materials.

It was found later that the shipments were not covered by import entries and the Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) determined that the garbage were not recyclable and lack import clearance.

The Ombudsman’s investigation also found out that Cuna, chief of the EMB at the time, issued six importation clearances to Chronic Plastics ignoring an existing notice of violation against the company.

Cuna has been ordered suspended for three months without pay for simple misconduct in connection with the case.

Chronic Plastics had been charged with violation of Republic Act 9003 or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act and the 1995 Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Disposal.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told President Rodrigo Duterte during his visit in November that his government is trying to resolve the impasse on the garbage shipment, which Canada refuses to take back.