(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte questioned the motives of a United States defense official who claimed that the US-Philippine relations would be affected if the Philippines proceeded with its plan to buy submarines from Russia.
Duterte said that he should be the one demanding an answer from the US government why it gave the Philippines “refurbished” helicopters which led to the death of the “best pilots” of the country.
He also noted that he could not recall a time when the US-Philippine relations was one of “mutuality and respect.”
“Hindi naman nagsabi, basta sinabi lang about our relations — relations between our two countries. When was it really a relation of mutuality and respect?” Duterte said reacting to a recent statement of US Assistant Secretary of Defense and Pacific Security Affairs Randall Schriver.
He said that the Philippines has no problem with acquiring arms from China, or even from Russia, and that the problem is only with America.
Duterte said that it is the US defense officials which should explain to the Philippines why three of the six helicopters, which the Philippines had acquired from them, crashed
“I want them to explain to us why we lost the best of our pilots in three crashes. Tapos here comes a guy saying that, ‘No, no. It’s very dangerous for you to acquire submarines from Russia,’” he said in a speech Tuesday, August 21, in Cebu City.
The President said that he does not believe that the cause of those helicopter crashes were due to pilot error, as the Philippines has the best pilots in the land.
“Now, to date, there are about two or three, sir na-crash. [Two? Three?] Three. Tatlong eroplano bumagsak ‘yun. And the two crashed, I don’t know, and then the third was — patay lahat. ‘Yun ‘yung basura na ibinigay nila sa atin. Hindi ako maniwala kailanman na piloto ‘yan. Pilot’s error? Impossible,” he said.
(Eagle News Service)
