Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

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The Romulan Republic
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Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/philippine ... -1.4390852
Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to "declare war" if Canada doesn’t take back the trash a Canadian company sent there more than six years ago, according to local media reports.

If Canada doesn’t reclaim the garbage as early as next week, Duterte said he would send the garbage back himself, according to news outlets The Inquirer and ABS-CBN News.

“I want a boat prepared. I’ll give a warning to Canada -- maybe next week -- that they better pull that thing out or I will set sail to Canada and I’ll pour the garbage there,” Duterte said, during a briefing about a recent earthquake.

“I cannot understand why they are making us a dumpsite,” he said. If Canada didn’t listen, Duterte said, “we’ll declare war against them.”

Translated from Filipino, Duterte also added “we’ll fight with Canada. We can take them down. I’ll return their trash -- just wait and see.”

“(I’ll) load the containers to a ship, and I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way,” Duterte said, stressing Canada was belittling the Philippines. “Prepare a grand reception. Eat it (the garbage) if you want to.”

More than six years ago, Chronic Inc., a Canadian plastics exporter, dumped more than 100 shipping containers of garbage disguised as plastics for recycling into the Philippines. The containers arrived in Manila in 2013 and 2014.

The trash consisted of used adult diapers, newspapers, plastic bottles and bags. Some experts have said the garbage violates international law.

Last week, Anthony Ho, a lawyer for the Pacific Centre for Environmental Law and Litigation, said the shipments violate multiple parts of the Basel Convention, a 30-year-old treaty that prevents countries from shipping hazardous waste to the developing world without their consent.

Trudeau has acknowledged that the garbage has been a long-standing irritant for the Philippines. During a 2017 trip to Manila for the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit, Trudeau told Duterte that Ottawa was working on the issue.

"I committed to him, as I'm happy to commit to you all now, that Canada is very much engaged in finding a solution on that," Trudeau said at the time.

During the past several years, Duterte has been at odds with Trudeau after the Canadian prime minister citing human rights abuses in the Philippines.

Last year, Duterte even cancelled a business deal between the two countries after Canada ordered a review into the contract over human rights abuses.

With files from The Associated Press
Should Canada deal with the garbage? Yes. Can Duterte go fuck himself? Also yes.

Admittedly, I'm half-inclined to say that we should refuse to deal with the garbage now, as I do not believe it is good practice to give in to threats and intimidation, as doing so encourages more of the same.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

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Granted that Canada is not considered a major military power in the same sense as, say, the US I somehow think that if it came down to Canada vs. the Philippines I'd be betting on Canada.

Yes, Canada should deal with the garbage, but threatening war is not going to hasten the cleanup.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by Solauren »

Chronic Inc is a small company in Whitby, Ontario.

They have been denying for years that they were the ones that shipped the Plastic down there.

Supposedly the trash violates international law. Okay, fine. Take Chronic Inc to court.

But war? Over something a small business might have done? WTF is wrong with Duterte?
I've been asked why I still follow a few of the people I know on Facebook with 'interesting political habits and view points'.

It's so when they comment on or approve of something, I know what pages to block/what not to vote for.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by mr friendly guy »

It's shit like this, literal in this case why China recently limited it's import of recyclables. They weren't getting what they were paying because a lot of other junk got mixed in the high quality recyclables they thought they were buying.

Tell you want. Trudeau should just challenge Duterte to s boxing match. That seems to be the best way he knows to settle disputes with his political opponents.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

Solauren wrote: 2019-04-23 07:39pm Chronic Inc is a small company in Whitby, Ontario.

They have been denying for years that they were the ones that shipped the Plastic down there.

Supposedly the trash violates international law. Okay, fine. Take Chronic Inc to court.

But war? Over something a small business might have done? WTF is wrong with Duterte?
It is not without cause the he gained the nickname "The Trump of the East".

I say if he wants to start a pointless war, let him. Most likely it'll be just empty grandstanding, but if not, we can put a few fascist boats on the bottom of the Pacific, and the biggest effect Canada is likely to suffer is that Trudeau's poll numbers will probably go up.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

It gets crazier: he's also threatening war with China over some little island, while acknowledging that it would be sending his soldiers on a "suicide mission":

https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/05/asia/sou ... index.html
Hong Kong (CNN)Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to send his troops on a "suicide mission" if Beijing doesn't "lay off" a Manila-occupied island in the South China Sea.

Duterte's speech at a rally in the city of Puerto Princesa in Palawan came days after the Philippine government claimed as many as 275 Chinese boats and ships had been spotted in recent months around Manila's Thitu Island in the Spratly Island chain.

"Let us be friends, but do not touch Pagasa Island and the rest," Duterte said, according to CNN Philippines, using the Philippine word Pagasa for Thitu.

"If you make moves there, that's a different story. I will tell my soldiers, 'Prepare for suicide mission'."

Duterte said his words were not a warning, but rather "advice to my friends."

"I will not plead or beg, but I'm just telling you that lay off the Pag-asa because I have soldiers there," he said, according to CNN Philippines.

CNN has reached out to the Philippines government for further comment.

A small Philippine military garrison as well as about 100 civilians are based on Thitu, which lies about 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Palawan, one of the islands that make up the Philippines.

Tensions have risen since the start of 2019 in the South China Sea, one of the world's most disputed regions and an important shipping lane.
The Philippines and China each claim overlapping areas of the vast sea, along with multiple other countries including Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei. The area where Thitu is located is also claimed by China as part of its territory.

The latest arrival of Chinese vessels around Thitu Island has provoked a stern response from Manila.

The Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs in a statement Thursday said their presence was "illegal" and a "clear violation of Philippine sovereignty."

"It has been observed that Chinese vessels have been present in large numbers and for sustained and recurring periods — what is commonly referred to as 'swarming' tactics — raising questions about their intent as well as concerns over their role in support of coercive objectives," the Philippine statement said.

Independent analysis by the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) of the hundreds of vessels which have appeared around Thitu Island since January has determined they are composed of dozens of fishing vessels, as well as China Coast Guard ships and People's Liberation Army Navy ships.

When asked about the disputed island on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang pointed to a meeting between Philippine and Chinese representatives to discuss a bilateral consultation mechanism to avoid South China Sea conflicts.

"I believe that the consensus reached by the two sides through discussion in this meeting is the best answer to your question," he said.
Diplomacy and intimidation.

To reinforce its claims to the South China Sea, China has built and militarized artificial islands and has attempted to undermine other countries' positions through a combination of diplomacy and intimidation.

Its aggressive moves in the region had antagonized previous Philippine administrations, which took Beijing to court to prove its claims over the sea.

But relations between China and the Philippines have warmed considerably since the 2016 inauguration of Duterte, who has pushed for a closer economic relationship with Beijing.

"I need China. More than anybody else at this point, I need China," Duterte said before flying to China in April 2018.

Compared with his predecessors, Duterte has viewed the dispute in the South China Sea as more negotiable than a matter of principle.
But China has been strengthening its hold over the region. In May 2018, Beijing announced it had successfully landed bombers on islands under its control for the first time, a big step in the militarization of the region.

The United States has also ramped up its freedom of navigation exercises in the region under US President Donald Trump, in an apparent attempt to hold back Chinese influence.

In a defiant statement to then-US Secretary of Defense James Mattis during a Beijing meeting in June 2018, President Xi Jinping said China wouldn't give up "any inch of territory."

Philippines armed forces spokesperson Edgard Arevalo cautioned on Monday that it was difficult to quantify how many ships are around the island at any one time, as Chinese vessels "come and go" from the area.

In an article published in February, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative said the sudden increase in the number of ships between December and January appeared to be a response to reclamation and construction by the Philippines government.

"The fishing boats have mostly been anchored between 2 and 5.5 nautical miles west of Thitu, while the naval and coast guard ships operate slightly farther away to the south and west," the AMTI said in an article.

"The fishing vessels display all the hallmarks of belonging to China's maritime militia, including having no gear in the water that would indicate fishing activity and disabling their Automatic Identification System (AIS) transceivers to hide their activities."

AMTI noted that Thitu is only about 12 nautical miles (22 kilometers) from Subi Reef, one of the main places China has fortified in its recent buildup in the South China Sea.

The Philippines Foreign Ministry said on Thursday if the Chinese government didn't repudiate the actions of the fishing vessels in the vicinity of Thitu, it would be assumed to have directed them.

"The presence of Chinese vessels within the (island group), whether military, fishing or other vessels, will thus continue to be the subject of appropriate action by the Philippines," the statement said.

Duterte's administration has made threats of military action against Chinese troops in the South China Sea before which have come to nothing. In May 2018, his foreign minister threatened "war" if Beijing attempted to access the oil and gas reportedly buried beneath the sea.
He's reportedly also taunted that Trump is afraid to fight China, though I can't find a source that isn't basically a tabloid. If so, I guess he isn't content with threatening to send his own countrymen pointlessly to their deaths, and is trying to bait Trump into making it a global thermonuclear war. And you just know Trump will take that bait and start Tweeting about how he's totally ready to go to war with China, because he has the tiniest dick ever.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by mr friendly guy »

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/garbag ... -1.5120279

Canada agrees to take it's garbage back. Let's see if Duterte accepts.

Trudeau should have challenged him to a boxing match. He is going to be accused of being weak by conservatives.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by The Romulan Republic »

I mean, Trudeau did just give Duterte what he wants after Duterte threatened him. It may have been the right thing to do on its own, but it sort of looks like folding to threats.

Granted, I'll take that over the hollow posturing of conservatives.
"I know its easy to be defeatist here because nothing has seemingly reigned Trump in so far. But I will say this: every asshole succeeds until finally, they don't. Again, 18 months before he resigned, Nixon had a sky-high approval rating of 67%. Harvey Weinstein was winning Oscars until one day, he definitely wasn't."-John Oliver

"The greatest enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan."-General Von Clauswitz, describing my opinion of Bernie or Busters and third partiers in a nutshell.

I SUPPORT A NATIONAL GENERAL STRIKE TO REMOVE TRUMP FROM OFFICE.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by mr friendly guy »

Funny part about this is that the Philippines has to explain that Duterte declaration of war is just a figure of speech, a usual explanation for when Duterte says bullshit things. This won't be reported in conservative outlets who will add them onto the list of other Trudeau foreign relationship troubles to say Canada looks weak. Can't say I have any sympathy for Justin, but I have to still be fair.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by Coop D'etat »

mr friendly guy wrote: 2019-05-02 10:18pm Funny part about this is that the Philippines has to explain that Duterte declaration of war is just a figure of speech, a usual explanation for when Duterte says bullshit things. This won't be reported in conservative outlets who will add them onto the list of other Trudeau foreign relationship troubles to say Canada looks weak. Can't say I have any sympathy for Justin, but I have to still be fair.
This whole thing hardly got any play in Canadian media, so I doubt it factors much one way or the other. The Alberta and PEI elections were what people were talking about during the time frame and to the extent it got any media attention, it was under the "wacky foreigner acts like a fool." category. Nobody much cared about the government response.

Weakness usually isn't the charge that conservative opposition makes against Trudeau that has any kind of staying power. Appearing foolish is something they've successfully made hay out of but not a lack of backbone or appeasement.
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Re: Duterte threatens war with Canada over garbage dump.

Post by mr friendly guy »

Trudeau shows his true leadership qualities.

https://www.vice.com/en_asia/article/j5 ... blem-trash
The Philippines recalled its envoys to Canada after the Canadian government missed its May 15 deadline to take back more than a dozen container vans filled with garbage it left in Manila six years ago.

“At midnight last night, letters for the recall of our ambassador and consuls to Canada went out. They are expected here in a day or so,” Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr said in a tweet on Thursday, May 16. “Canada missed the May 15 deadline. And we shall maintain a diminished diplomatic presence in Canada until its garbage is ship bound there.”
Last month, President Rodrigo Duterte said he would go to war with Canada over the garbage dispute. “Load them on a ship… I will advise Canada that your garbage is on the way. Prepare a grand reception. Eat it if you want to.”

Following the comments, Canada issued a formal offer to repatriate the garbage and committed to pay for the shipping. But Canada has yet to pick up the container vans despite its previous statements.
Better watch out Canada. Duterte will declare war on you guys. :wink: I hear his favourite prey is druggies. And you know Canada and drugs. :)
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