CPP: cancellation of weapon sale to PH a ‘clear rebuke’ by US

From MindaNews (Nov 3): CPP: cancellation of weapon sale to PH a ‘clear rebuke’ by US

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) said the cancellation of the sale of 26,000 M4 assault rifles to the Philippines is a “clear rebuke” by the United States government against President Rodrigo R. Duterte who declared an independent foreign policy, especially in the country’s military and economic relations with the US.

But the CPP, in a statement issued on November 2, said the cancellation of the weapons deal “is a good thing” as it urged the Philippines National Police (PNP) to “rethink and repudiate the militarization of police work, something which the US police forces have done and which is now being thrust on the local police forces.”

The communists also lambasted the US government for raising the concern on human rights in the country in relation to Duterte’s war on drugs when it supported the previous administration of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, Cory Aquino, Fidel Ramos, Joseph Ejercito Estrada, Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo and Benigno S. Aquino III, whom the CPP said also violated human rights.

“The pro-US regimes of Marcos, Cory Aquino, Ramos, Estrada, Arroyo and Benigno Aquino were all notorious violators of human rights but were never chided by the US government and instead were encouraged with military financing,” the CPP statement reads.

It said that the Filipino people suffered gravely from the US-sponsored counter-insurgency operations conducted by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and PNP in a bid to suppress the democratic and anti-imperialist forces in the Philippines.

“It is utterly hypocritical for the US State Department to now invoke human rights against the anti-US Duterte regime when the US government supported without remorse the Marcos dictatorship and all succeeding regimes which trampled on human rights with impunity,” said the CPP.

“The CPP cited the Israel government which, despite gross crimes against humanity in its genocidal war against the Palestinian people, continues to receive more than $3 billion annual military financing from the US,” it said.

The US State Department cancelled the sale 26,000 M4 rifles to the PNP over concerns of human rights violations while the San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) earlier ended the training program with the PNP.

But Duterte remained unfazed by the cancellation of the weapons sale.

“Iyan lang pantakot niya sa akin, hindi ka magpabili ng armas? Eh karaming de bomba dito,” he told reporters on Tuesday evening.

He said that Russia will come to the country’s aid if the need arises.

Duterte noted what a Russian diplomat said: “Come to Russia, we all have here anything you need,” he said.

http://www.mindanews.com/top-stories/2016/11/cpp-cancellation-of-weapon-sale-to-ph-a-clear-rebuke-by-us/