Make execs in garbage mess eat trash—Duterte

DAVAO CITY—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte went ballistic again, this time over the dumping of trash from Canada in the Philippines, saying that if it happened in his city, he would make the officials responsible eat the garbage.

“This is rudeness. Why did you allow them to dump their garbage here? Are we the garbage dump of the world?” Duterte said, addressing himself to environment and customs officials who had allowed trash from Canada to enter the Philippines and be dumped in the province of Tarlac.

“I will make you eat the trash,” said Duterte.

The mayor, known for his exaggerated responses to controversies, said he would not hesitate to personally lead a contingent that would bring back the wastes to Canada if these had been dumped in his city.

“I will rent a boat, take them and dump them into British Columbia,” Duterte said, referring to the province on the western coast of Canada.

Dismiss officials

The mayor said the Ombudsman should immediately dismiss environment and customs officials responsible for the entry of the trash shipment into the Philippines.

He said he commiserates with Tarlac Vice Gov. Enrique “Kit” Cojuangco Jr., whose province was used as a dumping ground for the trash shipment.

“I commiserate with Kit Cojuangco,” said Duterte.

“I condemn the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and customs officials [who allowed their entry], they should be summarily dismissed by the Ombudsman,” adding that to “wait for an administrative action would take too long.”

Duterte said taking in the dump was an “insult to the Filipinos.”

The trash shipment from Canada had been stored at the Port of Manila before it was transported to the province of Tarlac where some of the trash, kept in more than 50 cargo containers, had been dumped

until the private firm that was contracted by the customs bureau to dispose of the garbage stopped the process amid a growing public outcry.

The group Ban Toxics had raised a howl of protest over the trash shipment, asking President Aquino to bring it up with his counterparts in Canada during a visit there recently. Mr. Aquino had ignored the demand.

“I can embrace the bacteria of the Filipino people but I would never, never accept a swab of blood from a foreign country,” Duterte said.

Diplomatic protest

In a statement Wednesday, Duterte said Mr. Aquino should lodge a diplomatic protest against Canada over the trash shipment.

Duterte recalled that during the short-lived administration of former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, more than 100 containers of garbage from Japan was also dumped in the Philippines but Estrada immediately filed a diplomatic protest against the government of Japan.

Estrada ordered the Department of Foreign Affairs to lodge the diplomatic protest against Japan.

Duterte said Mr. Aquino can follow the example of Estrada.

On March 15, when asked to comment on the matter, the Canadian Embassy said the transaction was a “private commercial matter involving a Canadian company and its Philippine partner.” Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao