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| Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addresses troops during the turnover-of-command ceremony for the new chief of the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame in suburban Quezon City, northeast of Manila, on April 19, 2018. AP |
By Jung Min-ho
The Canadian government has promised to take back its waste, which has been rotting in the Philippines for more than five years, by the end of June.
According to Canadian media Wednesday (local time), the country's Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said the ministry signed a contract with a shipping firm, Bollore Logistics Canada, to take back the containers of garbage shipped to the Philippines between 2013 and 2014. They were sent by a private Canadian company falsely labeled as "recyclable materials."
The move comes after Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte ordered his government to hire a private shipping company to send 69 containers of garbage back to Canada and, if it refuses to accept it, leave it all within the country's territorial waters.
McKenna said the Canadian government will cover the full costs of the preparation, transfer, shipment and disposal of the waste.
Last week, Manila recalled its ambassador to Ottawa after Canada missed a May 15 deadline set by Duterte to remove the rubbish.
During a press conference Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not offer any further details on the deal with the Philippine government when asked about the matter in Vancouver.
"This is a situation that is unacceptable and has gone on for far too long," Trudeau said. "We are looking forward to having a solution to present to Canadians shortly and to our Filipino partners."
For years, Trudeau did not respond to protests from environmental activists over the waste. In 2017, he said it was "theoretically" possible to ship the waste back to Canada, but did not convert that theory into action.
But after the Korean government's decision to take back 6,500 tons of trash, which a Korean firm shipped to the Philippines falsely as "recyclable materials" last year, activists started to increase pressure on the Canadian government ― and Duterte sealed the deal.
