Crowd in Apec media center goes wild over Trudeau

The crowd in the international media center for the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) Summit went crazy when social media heart throb Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau held a surprise press conference Thursday.

Trudeau spoke to reporters in a hastily called press conference, vowing to plug the loopholes in the law that allowed the shipment of Canadian garbage to the Philippines, an issue that marred his popularity in social media and at the summit.

He arrived amid screams from women swooning over the 43-year-old former teacher who was installed as prime minister after his Liberal Party won a majority of the parliament’s 338 seats.

After the press conference, Trudeau was greeted with screams and flashes of cellphone cameras by volunteers and other persons in the media center.

Flanked by his security aides, Trudeau said his thanks and shook hands with some of the ecstatic admirers. He was carried off to a waiting vehicle.

An awestruck Apec volunteer told INQUIRER.net she was lucky enough to hold Trudeau’s arms.

“Oh my God, kinawayan niya lang kasi kami, nag-hi siya. Tapos hinila ng mga kasama ko kamay niya. Syempre naki-hila na rin ako at nahawakan ko ng bongga hanggang dito,” Jeliza Malapitan, a media volunteer, said, beckoning to her arm.

(Oh my God, he waved at us, he said hi. My companions pulled him over, so I pulled him over, too. And then I was able to hold his arms.)

“Ang saya lang. Ang gwapo niya! (I’m so happy. He’s so handsome!)” she added while giggling.

Another young man who was also a volunteer was interviewed by reporters. He exclaimed: “Nabakla ako ng kaunti! (I got gay for a while there!)”

In the press conference, Trudeau pleaded to his admirers to focus on his “substance” instead of his good looks.

He went on to share a lesson he learned from his father – the late former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau – to set aside “positive impressions that weren’t grounded in reality” and instead focus on “substance.”

“What I also had to learn is that there were a lot of people who liked my father and liked me for reasons entirely unrelated to who I actually was, and I had to learn to set aside positive impressions that weren’t grounded in reality,” Trudeau said..

“So, throughout my life, I have focused on what I have to do and the substance of what I put forward, and that has left me both grounded and able to focus regardless of perceptions or attentions to things external,” he added.

READ: Trudeau to Filipinos: Judge me beyond my looks

Dubbed an “Apec Hottie” on social media, Trudeau’s attendance at 2015 Apec was hounded by the trash issue involving a Canadian company that shipped to the Philippines, in the guise of recyclable scrap plastic materials, several tons of soiled adult diapers and household trash.

As many as 55 container vans containing garbage from Canada were discovered in 2013 by the Bureau of Customs.

In the same press conference, Trudeau vowed to close the loopholes in the law that allowed the shipment of Canadian garbage to the Philippines, but he remained vague whether or not he would take the dump back.

READ: Trudeau vague on addressing Canadian trash issue

“I have obviously been made aware of the situation and I’ve also been told that there is a Canadian solution in the process of being developed. But, at the same time, I know that this has exposed a problem that needs fixing within our own legislation that we’re going to lean into and make sure happens,” Trudeau said.

“Well, I think, going forward, we need to ensure that if a situation like this were to arise once again that the Canadian government has more power to actually demand action from the companies responsible. I believe there are loopholes here that were allowed to be skirted that we need to make sure we close [these], both for Canada’s interest and for our good relationships with our neighbors,” he added.

Instead of shipping the garbage back to Canada, the BOC has decided to dump the trash in Capas, Tarlac at the Philippines’ expense.

The Ontario-based Chronic Inc. shipped the containers to Manila through its Valenzuela-based consignee, Chronic Plastics. The BOC filed criminal charges against Chronic Plastics for violating the Revised Penal Code, the Tariff and Customs Code and the 1990 Toxic Waste Act.

The Philippines has been calling on Canada to take back the shipment under a 1995 convention on hazardous waste, which provides that “the exporting country must take back the waste materials if the receiving country refuses to accept them.”