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The Philippine president's spokesman says the exasperated leader has moved to have truckloads of garbage that Filipino officials say were illegally shipped to the Philippines years ago be forcibly shipped back to Canada.

President Rodrigo Duterte's spokesman, Salvador Panelo, held a news conference Wednesday to announce that Duterte has ordered officials to look for a private shipping company to transport the garbage to Canadian territory in an escalation of his increasingly adversarial stance.

The Philippines recalled its ambassador and consuls in Canada last week over Ottawa's failure to comply with a May 15 deadline to take back the garbage.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said last week that Canada has been working hard with Philippine officials and hopes to strike a resolution shortly but did not specify a time frame.