Canada to remove trash containers from Philippines by the end of June

Canada said on Wednesday that by the end of June it will remove truckloads of garbage which Philippine officials said were illegally shipped to the Asian country years ago, The Associated Press reported.

Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna said the government has awarded a contract to French shipping giant Bollore Logistics Canada that calls for the return of 69 containers filled with household waste and electronic garbage.

"The company will begin preparation for shipping in the coming days. The removal will be complete by the end of June, as the waste must be safely treated to meet Canadian safety and health requirements," McKenna's department said in a statement.

The trash is expected to be back in Canada by the end of summer.

Salvador Panelo, a spokesman for Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, held a news conference earlier on Wednesday to announce that Duterte has ordered officials to look for a private shipping company to transport the garbage to Canadian territory in an escalation of his increasingly adversarial stance.

"If Canada will not accept their trash, we will leave the same within its territorial waters or 12 nautical miles out to sea from the baseline of any of their country's shores," Panelo said. "The president's stance is as principled as it is uncompromising: The Philippines as an independent sovereign nation must not be treated as trash by other foreign nations."

The Philippine government recalled its ambassador and consuls in Canada last week over Ottawa's failure to comply with a May 15 deadline to take back the garbage.

At least 103 containers of household trash, including plastic bottles and bags, newspapers and diapers, were shipped in batches from Canada to the Philippines from 2013 to 2014. Thirty-four were already dealt with by Filipino authorities. Most of the other 69 containers are in two ports in Manila and northern Subic Freeport.

Philippine officials say all the containers were falsely declared by a private firm as recyclable plastic scraps and asked Canada to take back the garbage.

The Philippines has made several diplomatic protests to Canada since a 2016 court ruling that the garbage be returned, Reuters reported.