ISRAEL will be the Philippines's sole supplier of defense equipment, President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday, September 4.
Duterte made the pronouncement during his meeting with Israeli President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem, Israel.
He said he ordered the military to purchase military weapons only from Israel.
"In many times, we have been recipient of your assistance. Most of these were the intelligence gadgets that used to defeat [enemies]," Duterte told Rivlin.
"My order to my military is that in terms of military equipment particularly intelligence gathering, we only have one country to buy it from. That is my order, specifically Israel," he added.
The President admitted that while it would take a "long ride" to combat terrorism, he assured Rivlin that his government would exhaust efforts to achieve peace and order.
"You can be sure that the Philippines will remain loyal to the tenets of democracy and the right of the nation to exist peacefully," he said.
"With the worldwide terrorism now, it behooves upon Israel and the Philippines to cooperate more than ever to defeat one enemy, which I think could never disappear within the next 10 years," he added.
Duterte's remarks came nearly two weeks after he tested the United States's (US) willingess to enter into a possible weapons procurement deal with the Philippines.
The Philippines has long relied on the US, its long-time ally, when it comes to military hardware and support.
On August 16, Randall Schriver, US defense assistant secretary for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs, warned that the Philippines's planned acquisition of arms from Russia might be hurtful with its security alliance with Washington.
A week after Schriver's remarks, the US, through its three Cabinet officials, expressed openness to have a "future defense procurement" with the Philippines, in a bid to "strengthen and deepen the steadfast bonds" between the two nations.
Duterte on August 23 scoffed at the US's willingness to sell its defense equipment to the Philippines and challenged it to prove its "utter good faith" before he agrees to a possible procurement deal.
Rivlin, for his part, guaranteed that Israel would cooperate with the Philippines to stop terror acts.
The Israeli leader was confident that Israel's "strong relationship" with the Philippines would be helpful to take every challenge as an "opportunity to rebuild or to do something that can really bring us in front of the entire world."
"We [are] both trying to protect and to defend our people against fundamentalism, against terrorism. And we assure that we can also cooperate," he said.
"We are cooperating with every country that are trying to do the same to protect their own people and to carry the burden of security. And we do that with the idea and the values that we are holding, the values of democracy and the human rights," he added.
(VoxPop Philippines)
