Philippines normalizing Canada relations after garbage dispute

OTTAWA — The Philippines is slowly normalizing diplomatic relations with Canada now that the trash tiff of 2019 has come to a close.

Philippine executive secretary Salvador Medialdea issued a memo to department heads and government corporations June 4 saying the ban on travel to Canada and on interactions with Canadian officials is over.

There is no word yet on a return to Canada of the Philippine ambassador or consuls general, who were withdrawn until Canada took back a big load of garbage that had been festering in Philippine ports.

READ MORE: Cargo ship arrives in Philippines, will transport 69 containers of garbage back to Canada

That happened May 30, nearly six years after the garbage first arrived in the Philippines falsely labelled as plastics for recycling.

The dispute came to a head in April when President Rodrigo Duterte threatened to declare war on Canada if the trash wasn’t returned.

Duterte then recalled diplomats and issued the travel and interaction bans when Canada missed a May 15 deadline for taking the trash back.

WATCH: More coverage of the Philippines garbage dispute

1:48 Philippines loads 69 containers of mislabelled Canadian waste onto ship back to Vancouver

• Philippines loads 69 containers of mislabelled Canadian waste onto ship back to Vancouver
• ‘Dirty little secret’: Canada’s recycling problem revealed in trash dispute
• Malaysia now also sending back Canadian garbage
• Freeland unaware of Canadian trash shipped to Malaysia, working with Philippines to resolve dispute

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