Locsin orders Filipino diplomats to return to Canada

May 31, 2019

Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. Friday ordered top Filipino diplomats to return to their posts after tons of Canadian waste were shipped back to Canada.

Manila's ambassador to Ottawa and consuls were recalled this month over Canada's failure to heed a government deadline on May 15 to retrieve the garbage, which rotted in Philippine ports for several years.

"To our recalled posts, get your flights back. Thanks and sorry for the trouble you went through to drive home a point," Locsin said on Twitter.

On Friday, 69 containers of trash from Subic Bay, Olongapo in Zambales were loaded overnight on the container ship M/V Bavaria, which will send it to Vancouver.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier threatened to ship back the waste through a private company and will leave it within Canadian waters if it will not receive the garbage. DMS