President Duterte says US arms have no use for Philippines

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says the United States is seeking talks over his procurement plan for military equipment amid Manila's plan to purchase weapons from Russia.

Speaking at a military event in his hometown of Davao on Thursday, Duterte said he had received a letter signed by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross and Secretary of Defense James Mattis.

The letter, he said, urged Manila to buy Bell combat utility helicopters and Cessna utility aircraft from an American company. What his country needed were attack helicopters and small planes for counter-militancy operations, Duterte said.

He said America’s military equipment has no use for his country, adding the Philippines no longer will accept second-hand weapons from the United States.

"What I need are just propeller-driven planes for anti-insurgency.” he said. “We don't need F-16 and yet they dangle [it] before us after they insulted us.”

A senior Pentagon official visited the Philippines last week, advising Manila against buying Russian weapon systems and platforms.

US Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver said Washington "can be a better partner than the Russians can be to the Philippines."

Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana is expected to meet his Russian counterpart this week about the possibility of buying Russian arms.

US not reliable

Duterte further said there is no guarantee he could get what he has already bought from Washington.

“Prove to me first that you are in utter good faith,” he said arguing that US lawmakers could block arms supplies to Manila whenever they please.

"I would like to remind America all of them...how sure (are they) that I will be able to get what I bought?" said Duterte who pledged not to visit the United States.

PressTV-'Who are you to warn us?' Philippines' Duterte to US

The Philippine president says the United States is trying to hamper modernization of his country’s army.

The US has long been the Philippines' main supplier of military equipment. Duterte, however, scrapped a deal to buy assault rifles from Washington two years ago, when some US lawmakers campaigned to block the arms, citing human rights violations in the Philippines.

The Philippines, under President Duterte, has forged closer trade and defense ties with both Russia and China.

Russian Ambassador Igor Khovaev to Manila said on Thursday that all countries should respect the will of the Philippines as a sovereign nation to build a new partnership with Moscow.

The administration of US President Donald Trump has dropped some restrictions on sales of US weapons to bolster the American arms industry.

The White House announced in April an update to its policy on the transfer of military equipment to promote US exports, specifically armed drones.

Drones have been deployed both by the Pentagon in support of overt deployments in the so-called war on terror and by the CIA for covert targeted strikes to kill suspected militants.

However, thousands of civilians have been killed in such US strikes in the Middle East, South Asia and the Horn of Africa.

The United States is the world’s biggest arms exporter and Saudi Arabia has been its biggest client in recent years.

More than 14,700 Yemenis, many of them women and children, have been killed in the Saudi war since 2015.

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