“Canada done; Australia, Korea and China HK next,” Locsin said in a portion of a tweet he posted Tuesday night.
The country’s top diplomat made this disclosure a day before the ship containing the 69 containers filled with garbage sails back to Canada via China.
Locsin said reshipment of the controversial tons of wastes that were illegally sent to the Philippines between 2013 to 2014 will be at Canada’s expense.
“We’re not paying for it, Canada is. Let’s see if the other countries follow suit,” he said in reply to a netizen’s comment.
Locsin, on Monday, said the ship loaded with fumigated Canadian wastes, is ready to sail Thursday, May 30 after completing all the necessary documents from China.
Since April, the Duterte administration increased pressure on the Canadian government in Ottawa to immediately retrieve the garbage it illegally shipped to the Philippines six years ago.
After Ottawa’s failure to meet the May 15 deadline set by President Duterte, the Philippine government recalled Ambassador Petronila Garcia and several other consuls in protest of Canada’s “red tape.”
Earlier, Malacanang said the Philippines is offended by the reported dumping of Australian wastes to the country.
On May 23, the Customs Intelligence and Investigation Service said they discovered seven 40-footer container vans filled with garbage at the Mindanao International Container Terminal in Misamis Oriental.
The container vans from Australia reportedly contain “pieces of assorted scrap plastic, cellophane, wrappers, chunks of hard plastic, textiles, fibers, wood chips, glass cullet, stones, soil, paper and other shredded waste materials.”
Customs authorities described the shipment as “a characteristic smell inherent to municipal waste.”
On the other hand, the South Korean trash, which is estimated to be more than 5,100 metric tons of plastic garbage, was illegally brought to the Philippines last year.
Customs Commissioner Rey Leonardo Guerrero said the South Korean government has expressed its willingness to help repatriate the waste imported by Verde Soko Philippines Industrial Corp.
It was also reported that tons of plastic misdeclared as “assorted electronic devices” from Hong Kong were shipped to Misamis Oriental earlier in the year.
