Canada to retrieve trash ‘sooner than later’: Palace

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this assurance but did not give a specific date as to when the garbage will be shipped out. (File Photo: Office of the Presidential Spokesperson/Facebook)

MANILA — The government of Canada will retrieve the waste it had exported to Manila in 2013 “sooner than later”, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo made this assurance but did not give a specific date as to when the garbage will be shipped out.

“The DFA (Department of Foreign Affairs) issued a statement that the Canadian government has already directed a shipping company to get the trash back. And according to them, it will be sooner than later,” said Panelo in a statement.

Earlier, President Rodrigo Duterte gave Canada until May 15 to take its trash back but the North American country failed to meet the deadline.

This prompted Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. to recall Philippine ambassadors and consuls to Canada.

Panelo said the recall of the Filipino envoys is meant to persuade Canada to speed up the process of retrieving its garbage.

“That order of the recall is to persuade them to make it fast. The more they delay, the more personnel will be coming back,” Panelo said.

He described the delay in the process as “disruptive” of Philippine-Canadian ties.

Trade Secretary Ramon Lopez, however, made assurances that the trash row will not affect the ties between the two countries.

Lopez said the trade relations between the two countries would “simply continue” since the garbage shipment is a “separate issue”.