– Philippines’ Duterte Rails Against “Son Of A Bitch” American “Monkeys” After Arms Shipment Halted:
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who promised last week to stop cursing after a personal chat with god, once again slammed the United States on Wednesday for halting the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country, calling those behind the decision “fools” and “monkeys” and indicating he might turn to Russia and China instead. Duterte’s tirades against the US have become a virtiually daily event, and on Wednesday he said that he once believed in Washington, but had since lost respect for what is the Philippines’ biggest ally, Reuters reported.
Which is why the US decision to halt an arms shipment to Duterte should probably not come as a major shock: the State Department halted the sale of the assault rifles to the Philippine police after U.S. Senator Ben Cardin said he would oppose it, Senate aides told Reuters on Monday. Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concern about human rights violations in the Philippines during Duterte’s bloody, four-month-old war on drugs.
The news prompted the following outburst: “Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don’t want to sell,” Duterte said during a televised speech. “Son of a bitch, we have many home-made guns here. These American fools.”
Why the renewed anger? “That’s why I was rude at them, because they were rude at me,” he said.
According to procedures in Washington, the State Department informs Congress when international weapons sales are in the works. Aides said the State Department had been informed Cardin would oppose the deal during the prenotification process, thus halting the sale. U.S. State Department officials did not comment.
Meanwhile, the local authorities appeared displeased with their leaders’ relentless verbal diarrhea: the Philippine police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, on Tuesday expressed disappointment that police would not get the M4 rifles, which he said were reliable.
Duterte reiterated that Russia and China had shown willingness to sell arms to the Philippines, but he would wait to see if his military wanted to continue using U.S. weapons.
Alternatively, it is possible that all the State Department has avhieved, is to hand over a brand new client to China and/or Russia: “Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we’ll give you. “But I am holding off because I was asking the military if they have any problem. Because if you have, if you want to stick to America, fine.
“But, look closely and balance the situation, they are rude to us.”
Of course, the real question is whether Duterte wants to “stick to America”, because for all his talk, the new president still appears uncertain he will succeed in cutting off all ties with Washington. Which means that the ultimate decision to sever ties may have to come from the US, which may just snap as a result of the relntless mockery.
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