Teddy Locsin clarifies tweet on Canada garbage

MANILA, Philippines — Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. yesterday clarified that he is not against shipping tons of garbage back to Canada.

On Twitter, Locsin accused The STAR of being on the payroll of the importers of the garbage for supposedly misreporting his earlier statement on the matter in an article that came out yesterday.

“In fact garbage will be on ship in 15 days. No ifs or buts,” he wrote yesterday.

The secretary clarified that he was not against shipping of the trash back to Canada. What he was against, he stressed, was including the importers in the shipment “as it would be too much pollution.”

The STAR yesterday reported that Locsin was not keen on shipping back the Canadian trash, quoting the secretary’s earlier tweet and the reaction of presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo.

“It is our mission to nail those natives who imported Canadian garbage to our country. We will make them miserable for the rest of their natural lives,” wrote Locsin on Twitter last Tuesday.

“However we reject the suggestion to ship them out in a container of garbage. That’s too much pollution,” he added, apparently referring to the importers and not the trash.

Asked about Locsin’s tweet during a press briefing in Malacañang on Tuesday, Panelo said he would clarify the matter with the secretary as he himself appeared puzzled with the statement.

“I don’t understand. So where do we put the garbage? I think you should address that question to him, because I can’t quite understand it,” Panelo said.

“Maybe he has another idea – that something else would be used to carry the garbage instead of a container,” he said in Filipino.

The spokesman noted that Locsin had earlier committed to send back the trash to Canada.