Philippines says Canada helicopters ‘not for attack’

MANILA: The Philippine military on Thursday denied it planned to use 16 Bell helicopters bought from Canada as attack aircraft against local insurgents, following reports Ottawa was reviewing the deal.

Canadian media had reported that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was reconsidering the sale over fears the aircraft would be used in internal security operations, just hours after both governments had announced the deal.

President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman warned Manila may walk away from the deal in light of the controversy.

“If they don’t want to sell, well, we may consider the prospect of procuring them from other sources,” presidential spokesman Harry Roque told reporters Thursday.

The military stressed they were “utility helicopters, not attack helicopters”.

“They must not politicise the acquisition,” said Major-General Restituto Padilla, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programmes of the Philippine armed forces.

According to the Philippine defence department, the deal was signed with trade promotion outfit Canadian Commercial Corp last December, shortly after Trudeau clashed with Duterte during a Manila visit over alleged Philippine police murders of thousands of drug suspects.

As well as in the drug war, the Philippine military has for years been saddled with allegations of human rights abuses in its counterinsurgency campaigns.

The Philippines employs attack helicopters and planes to support ground troops battling militants in the Muslim south, as well as against communist guerrillas in other parts of the mainly Catholic Asian nation.

Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Thursday that an “extremely rigorous human rights review” would be undertaken before any export permit is issued for this contract.

“The prime minister and I have been very clear about the Duterte regime’s human rights abuses and the extrajudicial killings,” she told parliament.

“I have the authority to deny a permit if I feel that it poses a risk to human rights, and I am prepared to do so.”

A Philippine defence department spokesman told AFP on Wednesday the air force would use the Bell 412EPI aircraft, worth US$234.8 million, for disaster response and humanitarian missions, but also for ‘anti-terrorism’.

However, Padilla said Thursday this did not mean they would be used as ‘attack helicopters’.