Trash packed in container vans that were shipped from Canada in 2013 is unloaded at the sanitary landfill of the Metro Clark Waste Management Corp. in Capas, Tarlac. PHOTO COURTESY OF MCWMC
MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. stood firm on the May 15 deadline given by President Rodrigo Duterte for Canada to have its trash shipped back to that country.
“The President expects the garbage to be seaborne by May 15. That expectation will be met or else…,” Locsin said in a Twitter post late Tuesday.
The President expects the garbage to be seaborne by May 15. That expectation will be met or else… https://t.co/9ZueAXIW1E
— Teddy Locsin Jr. (@teddyboylocsin) May 7, 2019
“The deadline is May 15. Period. I don’t give two f*cks what DOF (Department of Finance) says,” he said in a separate tweet.
https://twitter.com/teddyboylocsin/status/1125770147434622978
Locsin’s remarks comes as a response to a news article on a statement issued by the DOF, which cited the report of Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero.
READ: PH can ship back waste by mid-May, but Canada ‘red tape’ causes delay
Guerrero said that “despite the Philippine government’s readiness to reexport the wastes, the Canadian government informed that it might take weeks for them to arrange the necessary documents from their end and that they might not meet the May 15 deadline.”
May 15 deadline
In an tweet last May 1, the country’s top diplomat said that the tons of waste illegally dumped to the Philippines from Canada several years ago “will be on ship in 15 days. No ifs or buts.”
READ: Canada’s trash ‘shipped out by May 15’
This after the President threatened war against Canada should it fail to take its trash back.
READ: Duterte to Canada: Take trash back or else I’ll declare war
Just recently, Malacañang said that Canada will shoulder all the expenses in shipping out the tons of garbage it illegally sent to the Philippines
READ: Palace: Canada to pay for cost of shipping out trash
“On the issue of garbage from Canada, the DFA and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources noted that the Canadian government is committed to shouldering all the expenses to ship out all the 69 waste containers,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement on Tuesday. /cbb