Canada’s trash ‘shipped out by May 15’

MANILA, Philippines — The tons of garbage from Canada that was dumped on the country six years ago will be shipped out on May 15, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said.

Locsin on Wednesday clarified his earlier tweets that Malacañang had apparently misunderstood to mean that he would not ship back the tons of trash to Canada.

In fact, he said, “the garbage will be on ship in 15 days.  No ifs or buts.”

Lacson said on Twitter on Tuesday that he “reject[s] the suggestion to ship out [the trash] in a container of garbage.”

In the same tweet, Locsin said it was his mission “to nail those natives who imported Canadian garbage to our country.”

He was apparently referring to the Filipino partners of Ontario-based Chronic Inc., which shipped the garbage to Manila in 103 containers in 2013 and 2014. The containers held about 2,450 tons of nonrecyclable trash, including household trash and diapers.

Illegal importation

Adelfa Eduardo, owner of the Valenzuela City-based Chronic Plastics, and customs brokers Leonora Flores and Sherjun Saldon had been charged with violating the 1990 Act to Control Toxic Substances and Hazardous Nuclear Waste, as well as the Tariff and Customs Code for illegally importing waste materials from Canada.

The Philippines and Canada are signatories to the 1995 Basel Convention on the Transboundary Movement of Hazardous Wastes and Disposal, which provides that “the exporting country must take back the waste materials if the receiving country refuses to accept them.”

President Rodrigo Duterte last week threatened to declare war on Canada if it did not take back its trash.

He also said he would dump the trash on Canada’s beaches and on its embassy in Manila if the country refused to heed his threat.