The police will push ahead with the purchase of 26,000 assault rifles from a US supplier, Philippine National Police (PNP) Director-General Ronald Dela Rosa said yesterday, following an about-face by Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who previously said the deal would be scrapped.
Duterte had a week ago expressed anger at “fools” and “monkeys” in Washington seeking to block the deal and said he would cancel it himself.
However, Dela Rosa said that Duterte revoked that decision, apparently after Republican Donald Trump’s surprise win in the US presidential election.
“[The president] told me to continue the deal,” Dela Rosa told a news conference.
“The processing of documents are going on smoothly ... we have the blessing of the president to continue the transaction,” he said.
Dela Rosa did not say why Duterte had changed his mind, but he said there would be a new president in Washington and “he and Donald Trump are friends.”
Aides to US Senator Ben Cardin, who sits on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, last month said the US Department of State had been informed Cardin would oppose the deal during the pre-notification process, effectively putting the brakes on it.
Cardin was reluctant for the US to provide weapons to the police given concern about alleged human rights violations in Duterte’s war on drugs, which killed 2,300 people in its first four months.
Dela Rosa said it was possible the president would scrap the guns deal if there were an intervention in Washington.
“If they will block it, I’m sure the president will again tell me to stop it. We’re paying for it, we’re not begging for it,” he said.
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