The Philippines Wants Canada to Clean Up its Own Trash
Jose Nino
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ZeroHedge reports that Rodrigo Duterte, the President of the Philippines, demands that garbage containers originating from Canada be shipped back to the country.
This is the latest controversy emerging from a dispute over more than 100 containers of trash that landed in the Philippines between 2013 and 2014. A Canadian company allegedly shipped these containers illegally.
The Canadian government previously agreed to these terms, but has been slow in fulfilling its end of the deal. In response to Canada’s sluggish actions, Duterte threated to leave the trash in Canadian waters if it refused to take it back. According to Salvador Panelo, a spokesman for Duterte, the president was “upset” by Canada’s delay in shipping the garbage back after Canada missed a key deadline on May 15.
The Philippine government is looking into hiring a private shipping company to move the garbage back to Canada, on the Philippine government’s dime.
Panelo continued relaying the Philippine government’s displeasure with the Canadian government’s actions.
The Philippines is an independent sovereign nation [and] must not be treated as trash by other foreign nations. We hope this message resonates well with other countries of the world.
The spokesman then said that the trash would be dumped in Canada’s territorial waters, which are 12 miles from Canada’s shore.
The containers that arrived in the Philippines were supposed to have plastics for recycling purposes. However, once delivered, this shipment actually contained newspapers, water bottles, diapers and other forms of waste.
In April, Duterte complained saying that “They have been sending their trash to us. Well, not this time. We will quarrel with each other. So what if we quarrel with Canada? We’ll declare war against them, we can beat them.”
Duterte advised the northern nation to “prepare a grand reception” for the incoming garbage. He ultimately doesn’t care what Canada does with it. Duterte suggested that Canadians could “eat it” if they so choose.
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