The United States has put on hold the delivery of thousands of rifles to the Philippines due to concerns over the drug war killings and alleged human rights violations in the country.
This was according to Philippine National Police (PNP) Deputy Director General Archie Francisco Gamboa on Tuesday, September 19, during the Senate hearing on the proposed budget for 2018 of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) and the PNP.
“The recent predicament that we have [is that we have] 27,000 [rifles] supposedly ready for delivery to the PNP – Sig Sauer basic assault rifles, 5.56,” Gamboa said. Sig Sauer is a firearms manufacturer based in the U.S.
“The U.S. State Department has put on hold the delivery of thousands of basic assault rifles to the Philippine National Police (PNP) because of alleged human rights violations linked to the war on drugs in the country,” the PNP official added.
According to Gamboa, the Philippine government had not yet paid the purchase. He noted, however, that the police may have to conduct a new bidding process to purchase weapons as it already obligated the funds.
Last year, Washington reportedly halted its firearms transaction with Manila after U.S. Senator Ben Cardin, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressed his intention to oppose it.
Cardin cited the supposed thousands of extrajudicial killings linked with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s controversial campaign against illegal drugs as grounds to halt the deal.
Hitting back at Washington, Duterte, who has been critical of the U.S., then called the country officials behind the decision “fools” and “monkeys.”
Earlier in May, Cardin and another U.S. Senator, Marco Rubio, filed a bill seeking to restrict the export of arms from Washington to Manila, citing Duterte’s “deeply alarming” war on drugs “that has horrified the international community.”
Their proposed Philippines Human Rights Accountability and Counternarcotics Act of 2017 aims to “restrict the exportation of certain defense articles to the [PNP],” and to “work with the Philippines to support civil society and a public health approach to substance abuse,” among others. (Dana Sioson/AJPress)
