Center for analysis of world arms trade, 6th of June. President of the Philippines Rodrigo Duterte said on the 3rd of June that the government is considering the possibility of buying Bell helicopters from the Armed Forces of the Republic of Korea in order to expand the combat capabilities of the Armed Forces.
According to the Philippine agency PNA, the president made this statement during a three-day visit to Seoul, whose goal was to further strengthen bilateral ties between the Philippines and South Korea, primarily in the areas of trade, investment, defense and security. During the visit, the President of the Philippines also got acquainted with the helicopter “Surion” developed in the Republic of Korea.
As reported by Center for analysis of world arms trade, the Armed Forces of the Philippines faced the problem of updating the helicopter fleet as a result of the cancellation in February 2018 of an agreement on the purchase of new Bell-412EPI helicopters in Canada.
On February 6, 2018, the Ministry of National Defense of the Philippines signed a contract through the Canadian Commercial Corporation to supply 16 Bell-412EPI multipurpose helicopters manufactured by Bell Helicopter, worth 12.073 billion. pesos ($ 233 million). It was assumed that the supplies will start in the first quarter of 2019 and will be completed in the second quarter of 2020. The Armed Forces of the Philippines intended to use the purchased “Bell-412EPI” as a CUH combat support helicopter, including for transportation and provision of troops, medical evacuation. The new cars were to replace the old helicopters “Huey” as part of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.
The sale message sparked protests from human rights organizations in Canada, after which the Canadian government initiated a re-evaluation of the issuance of a permit for the supply of helicopters, stating that it did not initially suggest that the cars would be used in combat operations. At the same time, the government did not specify how long it would take a repeated procedure. As a result, the Ministry of National Defense of the Philippines was forced to cancel the contract and resume the project of buying helicopters.
Speaking in Seoul, R. Duterte reiterated the inadmissibility of Canada’s conditions for the use of helicopters only for medical evacuation operations, citing the need to protect the country from the armed formations of the Maoist insurgent movement “New People’s Army”, “Communists”, other terrorist groups and organized crime. At the same time, the head of State stressed that the country’s leadership is making efforts to seek a peaceful compromise in the negotiation process with the movements “Moro National Liberation Front”, “Moro Islamic Liberation Front”, “New People’s Army” and leader of “communists” Jose Maria Sison.