President Rodrigo Duterte’s statement that he would declare war on Canada over its garbage dumped in Manila was merely a figure of speech, according to Defense officials.
“That is just a figure of speech to dramatize his extreme displeasure,” Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said in a message to reporters Wednesday night.
But he said the government must also “run after the importer of the garbage shipment.”
In other developments:
• Malacañang on Thursday warned Canada of severe repercussions should it refuse to take back the tons of garbage that were dumped in Philippine ports in 2013.
“The seventy years of diplomatic relations between the two countries will be put to naught if Canada will not act with dispatch and finality the resolution of this undiplomatic episode to which we take outrage, Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
Canada should take back its garbage “pronto” or else years of bilateral relations will be “put to naught.”
• The Eco-Waste Coalition has urged Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to “act fast” on Duterte’s recent statement over its garbage.
Duterte, in a speech on Tuesday, slammed Canada over the garbage issue and threatened to declare war against the country if it would not take the trash back by next week.
“President Duterte has once again spoken against the garbage imports from Canada, stressing that the Philippines is not a dumpsite,” Eco-Waste national coordinator Aileen Lucero said in a statement.
Defense spokesman Arsenio Andolong, meanwhile, echoed Lorenzana’s remarks, stressing that the remarks of the President were a natural expression of anger.
“The President is also human. There are moments when we tend to speak words even if we don’t actually mean it. It is merely an expression,” Andolong said in a message to the Philippine News Agency on Thursday.
Andolong also said declaring war was not a simple issue.
“We all know that there are a lot of procedures when it comes to that. We always respect processes and constitutional procedures. I think it’s not what the President meant literally,” Andolong said.
In a situation briefing on the effects of the magnitude-6.1 earthquake in San Fernando, Pampanga, on Tuesday, Duterte threatened to set sail to Canada and dump the garbage back there if they refused to resolve the issue.
From 2013 to 2014, a total of 103 container vans from Canada reportedly arrived in batches at the Port of Manila.
The garbage was initially declared to contain only plastic scraps. However, it was found to have non-recyclable plastic, household wastes and used adult diapers. With Vito Barcelo