The Philippine government may reconsider buying AK47s from Russia and China after the United States government stopped the sale of 26,000 rifles to the Philippine National Police.
“We have all what you want,” President Rodrigo Duterte quoted a Russian official as saying. “Niyaya talaga tayo.”
Duterte said that “China is open. Anything you want. Pinadalhan ako ng brochure.”
Tingnan mo yung mga unggoy, yung 26,000 na baril na bibilhin natin sa kanila ayaw na nila ipagbili. Tangina mo,” said Duterte, breaking his vow not to curse.
The US embargo “will not affect our anti-drug campaign. Your policemen, without guns and bullets, will be engaging drug lords in fistfights or in hand-to-hand combat in order to finish our war against illegal drugs,” according to PNP Chief Ronald Dela Rosa.
The PNP prefers the US made M4 assault rifles but with the US State Department stopping the arms sale, the Phillippine government has to look for other sources.
The US embargo stemmed from the alleged human rights abuses committed by the Duterte administration in its war against illegal drugs. US Senator Ben Cardin, a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has vowed to oppose the sale of arms to the PNP.