The tons of rotting Canadian rubbish wrongly labeled as recyclables will be sent back to Canada “sooner than later,” the Palace said on Tuesday.
In a Palace press briefing, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said the Canadian government had ordered a shipping company to handle the logistics of the retrieval process.
“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,” Panelo, without mentioning an exact date, told Palace reporters.
On Monday, Environment Undersecretary Benny Antiporda bared the government saw “no hindrance” to shipping out the waste containers.
According to him, the Canadian government tasked France-based transport company Bollore to handle the shipping procedures.
“We expect this to go faster… It’s now only a matter of coordination,” he added.
Manila had earlier set a May 15 deadline for Ottawa to take the tons of trash back after President Rodrigo Duterte berated Canada over the issue last month.
Canada has since maintained it was already working to arrange for the containers’ return. But they failed to comply with the one-week due date given by the President.
The Bureau of Customs said last week the country was ready to send back the waste, but Canada needed several more weeks to prepare documentation.
As the Canadian government missed the deadline, Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. recalled the Philippine ambassador and consuls in Canada, maintaining that diplomatic presence in Canada would remain diminished until the garbage was ship-bound there.