Move comes after deadline set for Canada to take back tonnes of rotting rubbish mistakenly shipped to Manila expired.

The Philippines has recalled its ambassador and consuls from Canada in an escalation of a festering diplomatic row over tonnes of rubbish shipped to the Southeast Asian nation.

Ties have been deteriorating since a Canadian company sent about 100 shipping containers that included rotting rubbish wrongly labelled as recyclable to Philippine ports in 2013 and 2014.

Manila set a May 15 deadline for Canada to take it back, after President Rodrigo Duterte criticised Ottawa over the issue last month.

Canada has since said it is working to arrange for the containers' return, but has not said when exactly that might happen.

On Thursday, Philippine Foreign Secretary Teodoro Locsin said letters recalling the ambassador and consuls to Canada have been sent and the diplomats would be in Manila "in a day or so".

"Canada missed the May 15 deadline. And we shall maintain a diminished diplomatic presence in Canada until its garbage is ship-bound there," Locsin wrote on Twitter.

Al Jazeera

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