Canada to pay for shipment of its 69 containers of garbage out of PH — Palace
Credit to Author: The Manila Times| Date: Tue, 07 May 2019 05:35:25 +0000
THE Canadian government committed to pay for all expenses to ship out the garbage inside 69 containers that were sent to the Philippines back in 2013 and 2014, Malacanang said on Tuesday.
The Departments of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) reported this during Monday’s Cabinet meeting, Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said.
President Rodrigo Duterte welcomed this development as he remained “firm” that the Philippines “would no longer accept waste from any country,” saying we are “not garbage collectors,” Panelo said.
In 2013 and 2014, 103 shipping containers of garbage declared as scarp plastics were sent to the Philippines from Canada.
In 2015, garbage from 26 of the containers were dumped on a private landfill in Tarlac, which prompted opposition from environment groups.
Duterte, in a speech in April, said he would declare war against Canada if it would not take back the tons of trash dumped into the country by next week.
Days after, Duterte said that he would dump the trash on Canada’s beaches if it would still not act on the matter.
Panelo said that while Duterte was “irate” with Canada, his warning was merely a figure of speech.
He said that no country would want to trigger such a war because the world would be “annihilated.”
“So, what I see there will just be a standoff. There will be diplomatic negotiations and it will resolve whatever conflict,” he said in a press briefing on April 29.
“He was irritated. Our statement, we will send them back to your shores if you do not get that. I think the President last night said throw it to your beach. That is true. He is angry and he will bring it back,” he said.
If Canada does not get it back, Panelo said that it would affect ties between the Philippines and Canada and would become an “irritant.”
“[Duterte] already has an instruction — If you will not take it back, we will bring it back to you. There will be no war, we will just bring it back. We will throw it back to them,” he said. RALPH EDWIN VILLANUEVA
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