THE shipment of 50 container vans of adult diapers and household wastes back to Ontario may not be sooner as both Canada and the Philippines are still trying to figure out who will shoulder the cost of the transfer, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Truedau said Tuesday.
Although he expressed his administration’s commitment in addressing the “long-standing irritant,” Trudeau said both countries were now working on “who will pay for, where the financial responsibility is, where the consequences are” before they could ship the wastes back to his homeland.
“We had legal barriers and restrictions that prevented us from being able to take it back,” Trudeau told reporters minutes after the Asean-Canadian dialogue.
“Those regulations and impediments have now been addressed so it is now theoretically possible to get them back.
“But there are still a number of questions around: Who will pay for, where the financial responsibility is, what the consequences are.”
Trudeau said he and President Rodrigo Duterte were able to discuss the issue during the informal talks on Tuesday morning, and that his government was serious in addressing the problem.
During the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in 2015 that the Philippines hosted, Trudeau said Canada was “committed” and developing a solution to the issue.
However, two years after he announced his commitment, the toxic garbage-filled containers are still lying in the Manila and Subic ports despite the calls by environmental health and justice groups, labor organizations and even by concerned lawmakers to return the garbage to Canada.
Trudeau then explained that Canadian government has restrictions which prevented them to ship back the garbage.
On Jan. 21, 2013, 50 containers of adult diapers and household wastes arrived in Manila.
The Bureau of Custom said the shipment contained “scrap plastic materials for recycling,” including adult diapers and household waste.
Ontario-based Chronic Inc. shipped the containers to Manila through its Valenzuela-based consignee Chronic Plastics.
However, the containers remained unclaimed at the port in Manila.
