Duterte lashes out at execs responsible for garbage dump

Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte (Facebook photo)

MANILA – Referring to the dumping of Canada’s garbage to the Philippines, Davao City Mayor Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte asserted that he would force the environment and customs officials responsible for the trash to eat them if they were thrown in his city.

The more than 1,300 tons of garbage stored in numerous cargo containers earlier arrived at the Manila International Container Port and was then brought to Tarlac province, where it has been dumped. Filipino groups then started protests disapproving the waste shipment.

“This is rudeness. Why did you allow them to dump their garbage here? Are we the garbage dump of the world?” Duterte asked. “I will make you eat the trash.”

If Canada’s garbage, which included non-recyclable plastics and adult diapers, was indeed dumped in Davao, Duterte stressed that he would not think twice to order a contingent to return the trash.

“I will rent a boat, take them and dump them into British Columbia,” he said, referring to one of the country’s provinces.

“I can embrace the bacteria of the Filipino people but I would never, never accept a swab of blood from a foreign country,” he added.

Duterte urged the Ombudsman to file criminal and administrative charges against the environment and customs officials involved in the foreign garbage disposal which was an ‘insult to the Filipinos’ and which ‘derogated our national dignity.’

“I condemn the DENR (Department of Environment and Natural Resources) and customs officials. They should be summarily dismissed by the Ombudsman… [To] wait for an administrative action would take too long,” he said.

Moreover, Duterte called on President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III to file a diplomatic protest against Canada. He cited former president and now Manila Mayor Jorseph “Erap” Estrada doing the same when Japan attempted to dump their garbage in the Philippines during his term.

“You know in a community of nations, there’s always that rule of good neighbor policy. That’s why, hopefully, if that is the spirit of the league of nations, the United Nations, the spirit that prevails should be good neighbor policy. You do not do something which is harmful, that could result in discomfort to your neighbors,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Canadian Embassy clarified that the garbage shipment was a ‘private commercial matter involving a Canadian company and its Philippine partner.’

Chronic Plastics, the Philippine firm which imported the garbage, had already been charged for violating the importation process and for declaring that the shipment contained recyclable plastics.