Canada vows to pay for return of garbage shipped to the Philippines

Canada has vowed to pay for the return of garbageshipped to the Philippines more than five years ago after PresidentRodrigo Duterte issued an ultimatum, an official said on Tuesday.Duterte has given Canada until May 15 to take back the waste sent tothe Philippines in batches from 2013 to 2014, and warned of adiplomatic falling out if there was no immediate action from Ottowa."The president is firm that we are not garbage collectors, thus heordered that the Philippines will no longer accept any waste from anycountry," presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement."The Canadian government has committed to shoulder all the expensesto ship out all the waste containers," he added.More than 100 containers of waste from Canada - consisting ofhousehold trash, plastic bottles and bags, newspapers, and used adultdiapers - were shipped to the country and misdeclared as plasticscraps.Canada had insisted then that the dumping was not supported by itsgovernment and that it was a private transaction.The Philippine government has repeatedly demanded that Canada takeback the waste. While Canada has stressed that it was committed tofixing the matter, no definite resolution was offered.Last month, Duterte said he would ship the waste back to Canada evenif it leads to war. Panelo also noted last month that 70 years of diplomatic relationsbetween the Philippines and Canada "will be put to naught" if noimmediate action was taken to resolve the rubbish issue.