Philippines sends trash back to Canada after Duterte escalates row

By Ronn Bautista
SUBIC, Philippines, May 31 (Reuters) - The Philippines has
started returning dozens of shipping containers full of trash to
Canada after a long-running row over waste exports that has
tested diplomatic ties amid threats from firebrand President
Rodrigo Duterte.
The 69 containers were loaded overnight onto a vessel at the
port of Subic, northwest of Manila, and left on Friday for a
month-long journey to the Canadian city of Vancouver.
A Philippine court in 2016 declared the import of 2,400
tonnes of Canadian waste illegal. It had been mislabelled as
plastics for recycling.
Canada said the waste, exported to the Philippines between
2013 and 2014, was a private commercial transaction done without
the government's consent.
"The government of Canada is taking all the necessary
measures to ensure safe and environmentally sound transport,
handling and disposal of the waste in Canada," Mark Johnson,
spokesman for Canada's environment and climate change ministry,
said in an email statement.
The Philippines had accused Canada of stalling, prompting
angry rebukes from Duterte, a volatile but hugely popular
president known for his tirades against Western governments.
He threatened to declare war on Canada, dump the trash in
front of its embassy in Manila, or personally sail with the
waste and leave it in Canadian waters. His spokesman, Salvador Panelo, said he hoped ties with
Canada would now return to normal.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said diplomats
whom he had ordered to leave Canada in protest had now been told
to return. Locsin posted a picture on Twitter on Friday of the
ship departing Subic, with the message "Baaaaaaaaa bye".
The Philippines is the latest Southeast Asian nation to take
issue with developed nations they say use the region as a
dumping grounds for waste.
Malaysia, the world's main destination for plastic waste
after China, said on Tuesday it would return as much as 3,000
tonnes of waste back to the countries of origin. Environmental activists gathered in Subic as the containers
were being prepared, holding banners that said "never again" and
"we are not the world's dump site."
Some carried cardboard boxes made to look like shipping
containers bearing signs that read "good riddance" and "Canada
take back your trash".
"The waste trade is a very unacceptable practice. It is a
deplorable practice," Greenpeace Philippines director Lea
Guerrero told reporters.