Ship carrying Canadian garbage set to leave Subic: DOJ chief

May 30, 2019

(Update) The vessel where the rotting tons of Canadian garbage are loaded is set to depart in Subic Bay Freeport in Zambales early Friday morning, Subic Bay Metropolitan Administrator and Chairperson Wilma Eisma said on Thursday.

In a text message to Manila Shimbu, Eisma said that MV Bavaria is set to leave for Vancouver, Canada at 5am on Friday.

Earlier in the day, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said that the ship, which carries the trash from Canada, would leave Thursday night.

"The ship is now in Subic ready to load," said Guevarra, officer-in-charge while President Rodrigo Duterte is on a four-day trip to Japan. "Vessel will depart from Subic at around midnight," he added.

Eisma said MV Bavaria would leave the port "as soon as all of its cargo is loaded, including the 69 containers of waste."

Each container has an average weight of 20 tons, she said.

The SBMA official said the loading of the container vans filled with trash started at 9pm on Thursday.

Guevarra said the garbage would be the last to be loaded so it would be the first to be unloaded when vessel reaches Vancouver.

Asked if Canada would pay any fee to SBMA for keeping the trash for years, Eisma said it is the Subic Bay International Terminal Corporation, which is the operator in Subic. She did not say if fees would be paid to SBITC.

Due to the garbage issue, bilateral relations between the Philippines and Canada have "diminished."

Manila has pulled out its diplomats, including the ambassador to Canada, due to the foreign government's failure to ship back the trash during the May 15 deadline.

President Rodrigo Duterte earlier warned it would declare war against Canada if it failed to take back its trash, which arrived in batches in the country in 2013 and 2014. Celerina Monte/DMS