Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Monday he would cancel an order for around 27,000 American-made rifles.
“The rifles that were ordered already, I am ordering the police to cancel it. We’ll just have to look for another source that is cheaper and maybe as durable and as good,” Duterte said.
“I would like to announce now that the 26,000 of M-16 that was [sic] maybe ordered or were ordered already, I am ordering its cancellation sa pulis. We will just have to look for another source that is cheaper and may be as durable and as good as those made from the place we’re ordering them. We will not insist on buying expensive arms. We can always get them somewhere else. So kalimutan na na nila, sabihing it could be arriving on July of 2017,” he said.
The United States and the Philippines are bound by a mutual defence pact, but Duterte has said he wants to removed American forces.
AFP reported that whilst on a state visit to Beijing last month he announced the Philippines’ “separation” from the United States and declared he was in China’s “ideological flow”.
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