'Upset' Duterte willing to spend on shipping back Canada trash
MANILA, Philippines — After Canada missed its deadline of taking back containers of garbage from the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte ordered concerned government agencies to act on the matter.
Presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo announced that the president has instructed the "appropriate office" to look for a private shipping company that would return the trash to the North American country.
Panelo, however, did not specify which government agency was tasked to do so.
According to Malacañang, the president is "upset" over the "inordinate delay" of Canada in taking back the containers of waste illegally shipped to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014.
"The Filipino people are gravely insulted about Canada treating this country as a dump site... The government of the Philippines will shoulder all expenses and we do not mind," Panelo said in press briefing.
Panelo stressed that Duterte's position on the issue is "principled as it is uncompromising."
"If Canada will not accept the trash, we will leave the same within the territorial waters or 12 nautical miles out to from the baseline of any of their country's shores," Panelo said.
Panelo issued this statement a day after he confirmed that a private shipping company has already been hired to ship back the waste.
He clarified that Canada's pronouncements are "neither here nor there" and that there has been no word from Ottawa after it missed its May 15 deadline.
Asked if the Philippines considers severing ties with Canada over the garbage row, Panelo said "that is going to that direction" based on Duterte's pronouncements.
Last week, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. ordered the recall of the Philippine ambassador and consuls to Canada after the North American country failed to take back its trash.
Locsin said the Philippines will maintain diminished diplomatic presence in Canada until the remaining containers of garbage are shipped back. — Patricia Lourdes Viray
A private Canadian company shipped more than 100 containers of household waste to Manila in 2013 and 2014 and have since stayed. (Bureau of Customs photo)
Foreign Affairs Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. tells pulled out envoys in Canada to return to their posts following the repatriation of the 69 containers of trash to the North American country.
"To our recalled posts, get your flights back. Thanks and sorry for the trouble you went through to drive home a point," Locsin says in a tweet.
One more tweet.
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) May 31, 2019
To our recalled posts, get your flights back. Thanks and sorry for the trouble you went through to drive home a point.
Arrevederci!
And thank you
Canada CDA Mucci.
I always end with a rhyme.
The ship M/V Bavaria leaves the Philippines to return to Canada the 69 containers of toxic waste after six years.
The ship tasked to transport the garbage arrived at the Subic Bay Freeport at 2:40 p.m. Thursday.
Trash from Canada will be shipped back on Thursday, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra says in a statement to reporters.
Guevarra has been designated officer-in-charge in the absence of President Rodrigo Duterte, who is in Japan for an official visit.
"The cost of reshipment from Manila to Vancouver, estimated at P10 million, will be shouldered by the Canadian government. The container vans will be loaded on vessels owned by three shipping companies," he also says.
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