PH to get 5K firearms from ‘friendly country’: Duterte

From the Philippine News Agency (Feb 26): PH to get 5K firearms from ‘friendly country’: Duterte

The Philippines will be receiving some 5,000 firearms from a “friendly country” in the next few days, President Rodrigo R. Duterte said Monday.



“I am not at liberty to divulge it but in the next few days we will have about 5,000 more shipment coming from a friendly country,” Duterte said during the inauguration of the newest shooting range of ARMSCOR Shooting Center, Incorporated (ASCI) in Davao City.


Duterte bared this expressing confidence that the Philippines will survive “pocket wars” despite canceling its firearms deal with the US in 2016.


The US earlier expressed concern over the human rights situation in the Philippines in relation to the administration’s aggressive war against drugs.



Duterte, however, said that the Philippines could still turn to other markets like China or Russia.



“Our neighbors who are good and despite the boycott sa (of) America of our needs, we are getting some firearms somewhere,” Duterte said.



“We will survive and we will win these pocket wars. And we will be a great nation someday,” he added.



War vs Illicit Drugs Continues


Duterte said that despite the decision of the International Criminal Court (ICC) to open a preliminary examination into alleged extrajudicial killings in the country, he will not allow his drug war to stop.



“And it will not stop the war against drugs. ICC or no ICC, it will proceed and it would last until the day -- of the last day of my term,” Duterte said.



“But I said at the end of the day, tapusin natin ito lahat para paglabas ko at least ang mga anak natin wala na masyadong problema lalo na ang ating mga apo (let’s finish this so that when I step down, at least our children and our grandchildren won’t have much of a problem anymore),” he added.



He pointed out that the number of casualties from the drug war should not mean that it should stop because it was a “compromise” for the next generation.



“Just because there are dead persons, it does not necessarily mean na (that) if there are so many dead persons, we have to stop our campaign against drugs. I said, we will have to compromise the next generation,” Duterte said.



“We might come up with a strong nation for our children and our grandchildren which are in front of us now o ma-compromise talaga ang Pilipinas (or the Philippines will really be compromised),” he added.



The Chief Executive admitted that although it was impossible to abolish the drug trade completely with three more years remaining in office, he wanted it reduced to the “minimum.”



“So I have three more years plus. And maybe at the end of my term, we would have --- not really get rid of everything because that’s impossible but bring it to the barest minimum with the least casualty of people getting crazy,” Duterte said.

http://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1026627