Philippines' Duterte Talks Trash (Literally) To Canada, Threatening War Over Garbage

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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wants Canada to come get tons of trash that was wrongly sent to his country — and he's threatening extreme steps if Canada doesn't clean up the situation. "We'll declare war against them," Duterte said Tuesday.

The president was referring to a large shipment of municipal trash that has sat in Manila since its arrival in 2013 and 2014. The more than 100 shipping containers had been declared to hold recyclable plastic. But when the doors were opened, customs officials found "household trash, plastic bottles and bags, newspapers, and used adult diapers," according to Filipino news outlet ABS-CBN.

"I will not allow that kind of s***," Duterte said at a news conference Tuesday, adding that Canada has attempted to provide educational grant money to the Philippines — on the condition that it also accept the garbage.

Duterte said he wants the trash gone within a week, even if he has to return it by force.

Both the garbage and the argument over its fate have been ripening for several years. In 2016, a Filipino court ruled that the garbage should return home. But since then, the case has continued to simmer.

In response to Duterte's remarks, Canada says it has already been working to resolve the trash dispute, adding that it has changed its regulations about hazardous waste shipments.

On Wednesday, Canada's Embassy in the Philippines said, "A joint technical working group, consisting of officials from both countries, is examining the full spectrum of issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution."

It added that Canada is committed to ensuring the waste "is processed in an environmentally responsible way."

As for Duterte's threat of starting a war over the trash, Canadian Ambassador to the Philippines John Holmes was quoted by ABS-CBN saying, "I won't comment on the specific words of the president or his tone, but I will say this: Our prime minister committed and has recommitted to resolving this issue, including taking the waste back to Canada."

As Canada's CBC reports, an environmental law firm in Canada issued a legal opinion last week accusing Canada of being "in violation of the international Basel Convention, which forbids developed nations from sending their toxic or hazardous waste to developing nations without informed consent."

Duterte addressed the trash topic at the end of a news conference about two strong earthquakes that hit the Philippines Monday and Tuesday, causing at least 16 deaths. After focusing on the latest updates in the recovery effort, the president spent several minutes discussing the garbage fight.

"I want a boat prepared," Duterte said, tapping a conference table for emphasis. "I'll give a warning to Canada, maybe next week, that they better pull that thing out — or I will set sail" and return the rubbish.

"I cannot understand why they're making us a dump site," Duterte said.

Duterte said he doesn't care what Canada does with the garbage: "Eat it if you want to."

He jokingly suggested Canadians should prepare a gala reception to mark the repatriation of the refuse, which dates from the previous Filipino administration headed by President Benigno Aquino III.

"Prepare and celebrate," Duterte said, "because your garbage is coming home."</s>Rodrigo Duterte has taken trash talking to a whole new level.

The Philippines president has threatened to “go to war” with Canada if it doesn’t take back tons of garbage a Canada-based company shipped to Manila years ago, CNN Philippines reported Tuesday.

“I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that (trash) out,” said Duterte, who’s known for his bombastic statements, according to the report. “We’ll declare war against them. We can handle them anyway.”

The private company shipped 103 containers filled with 2,450 tons of trash to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014.

The containers were labeled as plastics for recycling, the report said, but inspectors discovered that the trash was not recyclable and declared the refuse illegal.

 Some of the containers are still sitting in the port of Manila.

“I cannot understand why they are making us a dump site,” Duterte said, warning that he would return the trash himself to Canada.

“The garbage is coming home,” he said.

The Philippines has been requesting Canada to remove its trash for several years, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he was “very much engaged in finding a solution.”</s>Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to “declare war” on Canada in remarks Tuesday, claiming he would personally sail across the Pacific and dump tons of trash onto the nation if Prime Minister Justin Trudeau did not agree to take back the garbage it had sent to the island nation.

Duterte was speaking at a briefing regarding a recent earthquake that struck the island of Luzon, where Manila is located.

Canada shipped over 100 containers of unrecyclable household trash to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014, claiming it to be recyclable plastics. Philippine authorities were outraged to discover upon opening them that they contained trash; Canada has refused to take them back even though the Trudeau government acknowledged Canada violated the United Nations Basel Convention on shipping garbage, changed Canadian law to ensure it does not happen again, and promised a “Canadian process” to solve the problem, according to the Philippine Star.

The “Canadian process” has largely been to urge the Philippines to keep the trash.

Calling Canadian government officials “crazies,” Duterte announced that the trash would return to Canada next week no matter what.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail, there in Canada, I will dump their trash there,” Duterte declared. “I will declare war against them. I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way. Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to.”

“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,” the president added. “Crazies. They are pushing us around. I won’t let that happen.”

“I cannot understand why they are making us a dump site,” he concluded.

Duterte said he would give the Canadian government one week before either declaring war or dumping all the trash in front of the Canadian embassy in Manila.

Canada’s government has responded in a statement to national broadcaster CBC that it is “strongly committed” to ending the dispute.

“Canada is strongly committed to collaborating with the Philippines government to resolve this issue and is aware of the court decision ordering the importer to ship the material back to Canada,” a spokesperson for Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna said. “A joint technical working group, consisting of officials from both countries, is examining the full spectrum of issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution.”

Duterte has long objected to the Trudeau administration, though Canada and the Philippines have no major disputes aside from waste disposal issues. Trudeau challenged Duterte during an in-person meeting in 2017, chiding him over reports that his campaign against drug trafficking was violating the human rights of Filipinos by killing drug suspects without due process. Duterte responded with a public rant calling Trudeau’s remarks “bullshit.”

Trudeau had claimed that Duterte was “receptive” to his comments before the tirade.

“[I]t is a personal and official insult. That is why you hear me chewing down curses, epithets, nagmumura (cursing), bullshit and everything because it angers me when you are a foreigner you do not know what is happening in this country,” Duterte told reporters.

“I only answer to the Filipino. I will not answer to any other bullshit, especially foreigners. Lay off,” Duterte said.

His most recent tirade against Canada has attracted criticism from local politicians who wonder why Duterte is so eager to attack Canada but does not speak similarly regarding China’s repeated attempted to invade and colonize parts of the Philippines. China claims most of the South China Sea, including significant parts of Philippine sovereign territory, and has constructed military and domestic facilities there despite a 2016 international tribunal finding the construction illegal.

Duterte ordered his government to stop demanding China abide by the ruling, though he had previously threatened to personally “jet-ski” to the disputed territory and fight the Chinese military.

“Canada has been a friend … Garbage is an issue, but the territories as well … are more important,” opposition candidate Samira Gutoc said on Wednesday, according to Rappler. “He should employ his aggressive language on China, so this posturing of his, sir, you target those who need it more, apply your political [power] against people who take our territories.”

Another candidate, former solicitor general Florin Hilbay, said the Canadian trash issue was a “distraction” from “the creeping invasion of China, the jobs, land, and food being taken away from Filipinos by Chinese nationals, as well the rising prices of commodities.”

Duterte left the Philippines to travel to Beijing for an in-person meeting with Chinese communist leader Xi Jinping on Wednesday, shortly after threatening Canada.</s>Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to "declare war" if Canada doesn’t take back the trash a Canadian company sent there more than six years ago, according to local media reports.

If Canada doesn’t reclaim the garbage as early as next week, Duterte said he would send the garbage back himself, according to news outlets The Inquirer and ABS-CBN News.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada -- maybe next week -- that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail to Canada and I’ll pour the garbage there,” Duterte said, during a briefing about a recent earthquake.

“I cannot understand why they are making us a dumpsite,” he said. If Canada didn’t listen, Duterte said, “we’ll declare war against them.”

Translated from Filipino, Duterte also added “we’ll fight with Canada. We can take them down. I’ll return their trash -- just wait and see.”

“(I’ll) load the containers to a ship, and I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way,” Duterte said, stressing Canada was belittling the Philippines. “Prepare a grand reception. Eat it (the garbage) if you want to.”

More than six years ago, Chronic Inc., a Canadian plastics exporter, dumped more than 100 shipping containers of garbage disguised as plastics for recycling into the Philippines. The containers arrived in Manila in 2013 and 2014.

The trash consisted of used adult diapers, newspapers, plastic bottles and bags. Some experts have said the garbage violates international law.

Last week, Anthony Ho, a lawyer for the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation, said the shipments violate multiple parts of the Basel Convention, a 30-year-old treaty that prevents countries from shipping hazardous waste to the developing world without their consent.

Trudeau has acknowledged that the garbage has been a long-standing irritant for the Philippines. During a 2017 trip to Manila for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, Trudeau told Duterte that Ottawa was working on the issue.

"I committed to him, as I'm happy to commit to you all now, that Canada is very much engaged in finding a solution on that," Trudeau said at the time.

During the past several years, Duterte has been at odds with Trudeau after the Canadian prime minister citing human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Last year, Duterte even cancelled a business deal between the two countries after Canada ordered a review into the contract over human rights abuses.

With files from The Associated Press</s>OTTAWA — The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn’t take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will “declare war” and ship the containers back himself.

Filipino media outlets are reporting that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

More than 100 of the containers were shipped to Manila by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014, improperly labelled as plastics for recycling.

Customs inspectors discovered they actually contained garbage, including soiled adult diapers and kitchen trash.

Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.

Last week a British Columbia lawyer said in a legal brief that Canada is in violation of the international Basel Convention, which forbids developed nations from sending their toxic or hazardous waste to developing nations without informed consent.
• Philippine quake knocks over building, at least 11 dead
• ‘WHY IS THIS SOB STILL ALIVE’: Philippine prez takes aim at ‘idiot’ fired cop</s>Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte's threat to "declare war" on Canada within a week if it doesn't clean up its act and remove tons of trash shipped to Manila is most likely just garbage.

While it's true the two nations have strained ties, Duterte's erratic rants and incendiary remarks have become his calling card. He often prefaces his remarks with "mother f--ker," boasts about killing people in his teens and says things like wanting to eat a terrorist's liver.

On Tuesday, the trash-talking leader demanded Canada come get tons of trash that was wrongly sent to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014. He warned that if Canada doesn't get its ducks in a row, he will "declare war against them."

"I will not allow that kind of s--t," Duterte said at a press conference on Tuesday.

While it's highly unlikely he'll take any sort of drastic measure, if war were to break out, a comparison of military might seems to indicate Canada would crush its competition.

According to a 2019 comparison of military power, Canada ranks 21 out of 137 countries while the Philippines comes in at a distant 64.

DUTERTE ASKS WHY CRITICAL EX-POLICE OFFIER IS STILL ALIVE

Though the Asian nation dominates in total military personnel, 305,000 compared to Canada's 94,000, Ottawa easily beats Manila in purchasing power and aircraft, 384 to 171.

Canada has 53 fighters/inceptors, 53 attack aircraft, 39 transports, 138 trainers, 148 helicopters, 1,467 serviceable airports, 2,000 armored fighting vehicles, 160 towed artillery, 4 submarines, 12 frigates, 20 patrol craft and 10 major ports and terminals.

The Philippines clocks in at 0 fighters, 20 attack aircraft, 22 transports, 24 trainers, 97 helicopters, 247 serviceable airports, 530 armored fighting vehicles, 286 towed artillery, 0 submarines, 3 frigates, 10 naval corvettes or ocean-going surface warships, 39 patrol craft and has 6 major ports and terminals.

Canada also has powerful alliances around the world including England, Australia and France. Duterte could probably sway Saudi Arabia, who have had fraught diplomatic relations with the Canadians since last year, and maybe President Trump.

TRUMP CLASHES WITH GLOBALIST EUROPEAN LEADERS, TRUDEAU AS HE EMBRACES NATIONALISM

Trump has routinely talked trash about Canadians, referring to them as trade cheaters. He's also taken shots at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, calling him "very dishonest and weak." He's also called out Trudeau over his left-leaning policies on illegal drugs.

On the other hand, Trump has praised Duterte and said he had a "great relationship" with him. The vibe seemed to be mutual. Duterte has often praised Trump and called him a "good friend."

Duterte raised the garbage issue in a televised meeting with local officials late Tuesday after visiting earthquake-hit Pampanga province, north of Manila.

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“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail to Canada and pour their garbage there,” Duterte said, adding he would ask Canadian officials to “prepare a grand reception.”

“Celebrate because your garbage is coming home,” he said. “Eat it if you want to.”

On Wednesday, Canada's Embassy in the Philippines said, "a joint technical working group, consisting of officials from both countries, is examining the full spectrum of issues related to the removal of the waste with a view to a timely resolution" and said that Canada is committed to making sure the heaps of trash is "processed in an environmentally responsible way."</s>In 2013 and 2014, a total of 103 shipping containers from Canada labelled as plastics arrived in the Philippines

The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn’t take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will “declare war” and ship the containers back himself.

Filipino media outlets report that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

“I want a boat prepared,” Duterte said. ”I’ll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail.”

Duterte, who is known for his combativeness, threatened to declare war on Canada if the issue isn’t resolved.

“I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way,” he said. ”Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to.”

In 2013 and 2014, a total of 103 shipping containers from Canada labelled as plastics arrived in the Philippines for recycling, but Filipino customs inspectors determined the containers were actually filled with debris from Canadian trash bins.

READ MORE: Canadian garbage rotting in Manila violates international law, lawyers say

Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked about the matter on trips to the Philippines in both 2015 and 2017. On the first visit he said Canada had no legal means to force the company that shipped the waste to take the trash back. In 2017 Trudeau said Canada was working very hard on a solution and that it was “theoretically” possible for Canada to take back the trash.

A year after that Canada and the Philippines formed a working group of officials to solve the issue, but nearly six months after that nothing has been resolved.

The Canadian government didn’t appear to be changing its tune following Duterte’s comments. A spokeswoman for Environment Minister Catherine McKenna sent a written statement that is identical to the statement issued by a different spokeswoman last week, mentioning the working group and promising to work with the Philippines ”to ensure the material is processed in an environmentally responsible way.”

“Canada is strongly committed to collaborating with the Philippines government to resolve this issue and is aware of the court decision ordering the importer to ship the material back to Canada,” wrote Sabrina Kim.

She also mentioned a change to regulations in 2016 meant to prevent such a thing from happening again. The change means Canadian firms will need to get approval to ship waste if the destination country says it is hazardous, even if Canadian officials don’t deem it to be so.

Last week, a legal opinion prepared by the Victoria-based Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation said Canada’s actions with the shipments violate multiple parts of the Basel Convention, a 30-year-old treaty that prevents countries from shipping hazardous waste to the developing world without the receiving country’s consent. The violations include inaccurately describing the contents of the containers, failing to take them back within 30 days of being notified of the hazard, and attempting to get the Philippines to take on the obligation for disposing of the waste.

Kathleen Ruff, founder of rightoncanada.ca, has been trying to get Canada to take back its trash and is incensed.

“It’s incredible to me that the Canadian government just dismisses the fact that it is breaking the law,” she said. ”I guess some people believe they are above the law and count on getting away with it.”

Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.</s>OTTAWA—The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn’t take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will “declare war” and ship the containers back himself. Filipino media outlets are reporting that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

More than 100 of the containers were shipped to Manila by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014, improperly labelled as plastics for recycling. Customs inspectors discovered they actually contained garbage, including soiled adult diapers and kitchen trash. Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.</s>OTTAWA — The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn't take back tonnes of trash within the next week he will "declare war" and ship the containers back himself.

Filipino media outlets are reporting that Rodrigo Duterte made threats Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

More than 100 of the containers were shipped to Manila by a Canadian company in 2013 and 2014, improperly labelled as plastics for recycling.

Customs inspectors discovered they actually contained garbage, including soiled adult diapers and kitchen trash.</s>OTTAWA — The president of the Philippines says if Canada doesn't take back tonnes of trash within the next week, he will "declare war" and ship the containers back himself.

Filipino media outlets report that President Rodrigo Duterte made threats on Tuesday about dozens of shipping containers filled with Canadian household and electronic garbage that has been rotting in a port near Manila for nearly six years.

"I want a boat prepared," Duterte said. "I'll give a warning to Canada maybe next week that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail."

Duterte, who is known for his combativeness, threatened to declare war on Canada if the issue isn't resolved.

"I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way," he said. "Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to."

In 2013 and 2014, a total of 103 shipping containers from Canada labelled as plastics arrived in the Philippines for recycling, but Filipino customs inspectors determined the containers were actually filled with debris from Canadian trash bins.

Canada has been trying for nearly six years to convince the Philippines to dispose of the garbage there, even though a Filipino court ordered the trash returned to Canada in 2016.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was asked about the matter on trips to the Philippines in both 2015 and 2017. On the first visit, he said Canada had no legal means to force the company that shipped the waste to take it back. In 2017, Trudeau said Canada was working very hard on a solution and that it was "theoretically" possible for Canada to take back the trash.

Last year, Canada and the Philippines formed a working group of officials to solve the issue, but nearly six months later, nothing has been resolved.

The Canadian government didn't appear to be changing its tune following Duterte's comments.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte insists Canada remove tons of mislabeled, misdirected trash from Manila that arrived in 2013 and 2014. Duterte threatens to retaliate, up to declaring war, if the trash is not removed.