Philippines’ Duterte Condemns U.S. for Stopping Gun Sale

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte suggested on Wednesday that he might turn to China or Russia after the United States stopped the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country. He even called those behind the decision “fools” and “monkeys”.

Duterte’s outbursts against the former colonial power are customary during his speeches. He said on Wednesday he once had faith in Washington, but had since lost respect for the Philippines’ biggest ally.

Senate aides said on Monday that the U.S. State Department discontinued the sale of the assault rifles to the Philippine police following U.S. Senator Ben Cardin’s announcement that he would oppose it.

Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was hesitant for the United States to offer the weapons due to concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines throughout Duterte’s bloody, four-month-old war on drugs, aides said.

“Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don’t want to sell,” Duterte said during a televised speech.

“Son of a bitch, we have many home-made guns here. These American fools.”

Anti-narcotics drive was the lynchpin of Duterte’s election campaign. Police and suspected vigilantes have killed more than 2,300 people in anti-drug operations as part this campaign.

Duterte has expressed his anger at the United States for bringing up concerns about the extra-judicial killings.

He said the reason why he was rude at them is because they were rude to him.

Based on procedures in Washington, the State Department notifies Congress when international weapons sales are in the works. Aides said the State Department had been advised Cardin would oppose the transaction during the pre-notification process, thus stopping the sale.

U.S. State Department officials declined to comment.

On Tuesday, Philippine police chief Ronald dela Rosa expressed displeasure that police would not get the M4 rifles, which he said were dependable.

Duterte reiterated that China and Russia had indicated willingness to sell arms to the Philippines. However, he would wait to see if his military sought to continue using U.S. weapons.

 

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