MALACAÑANG on Thursday said the government wants the trash recently dumped in Misamis Oriental shipped back to Australia.

A shipment of trash from Australia was intercepted recently in Tagoloan, Misamis Oriental, according to GMA’s 24 Oras exclusive report last Wednesday.

In a press briefing at the Palace, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador S. Panelo said regarding the trash from Australia: “It will be offensive to this government to be a recipient of trash or ‘basura.’ We are offended by that. We will not allow it. We’ll send them back.”

According to Mr. Panelo, the government will order the private firm responsible for the shipment to send the garbage back to Australia.

“Ipapabalik natin sa kanila (We will ask them to ship [the garbage] back),” he said.

Asked what measures should be taken to avoid the same incident from happening again, he said the policy is to send all the trash back to their countries of origin.

“Aba eh di (Of course), as soon as we discover that, then we will have the same procedure. We’ll have the same stand.”

“We will not allow ourselves to be [a] dumping ground of trash.”

On the trash from Canada, Mr. Panelo said it will be transported by the Philippine government “soon” despite the Canadian government’s announcement that it has hired a private firm for the shipment.

“Sabi nila (They said) it will take about end of June pa. Hindi papayag si Presidente roon (The President will not allow that). And I understand from [Finance] Secretary [Carlos G.] Dominguez [III] that malapit nang ipadala (the trash will be shipped back soon),” Mr. Panelo said. — Arjay L. Balinbin

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