Canada to review Bell chopper deal
OTTAWA— Just one day after signing a $233-million (P12-billion) agreement to sell 16 helicopters to the Philippines, the Canadian government on Wednesday ordered a review of the deal amid concerns the aircraft could be used to fight local rebels. A Canadian trade official said the deal was struck in 2012 on the understanding they would be used for search-and-rescue missions.
OTTAWA— Just one day after signing a $233-million (P12-billion) agreement to sell 16 helicopters to the Philippines, the Canadian government on Wednesday ordered a review of the deal amid concerns the aircraft could be used to fight local rebels.
Canadian Trade Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne said that the deal—formally signed on Tuesday—was struck in 2012 on the understanding the helicopters would be used for search-and-rescue missions.
But Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla, the deputy chief of staff for plans and programs of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, told Reuters on Tuesday that the Bell-412EPI helicopters would “be used for the military’s internal security operations.”
Padilla added that the helicopters could also be used for search-and-rescue and disaster relief operations.
“When we saw that declaration . . . we immediately launched a review with the relevant authorities. And we will obviously review the facts and take the right decision,” Champagne told reporters, without giving more details.
Weapons sale rules
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asked later whether he was concerned the helicopters might be used against Filipino citizens, replied, “Absolutely.”
Canada has very clear regulations about to whom it can sell weapons and how they can be used, Trudeau said during a question-and-answer event at the University of Chicago.
“We are going to make sure before this deal or any other deal goes through that we are abiding by the rules . . . that Canadian governments have to follow,” he said.
In Manila on Thursday, the military denied it planned to use the helicopters as attack aircraft against local insurgents.
“They must not politicize the acquisition,” Padilla said.
“You must understand that these are utility helicopters, not attack helicopters,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque said the military would “consider the possibility of procuring from other sources” if Canada did not want to sell to the Philippines.
Roque insisted the Bells would be used for humanitarian missions and disaster response.
Bemused
Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, who signed the deal on Tuesday with Canadian Commercial Corp., which is licensed to sell the American military aircraft, expressed bemusement at news of the review.
“I met with the Bell people in Singapore two nights ago and they have not indicated any hitch in the project,” Lorenzana said in a text message to reporters.
Later, in a statement, he said the helicopters were not attack or close-support aircraft and they would be used for personnel and supplies transport, ferrying wounded troops, humanitarian operations and disaster response.
The Bell helicopters would replace the secondhand Vietnam War-era UH-1H “Huey” rotary aircraft, the workhorse of the Philippine Air Force.
The Philippines acquired the Hueys from the United States.
The military employs attack helicopters and planes to support ground troops battling Moro rebels in Mindanao, as well as communist New People’s Army guerrillas in other parts of the country.
The Bell helicopters are scheduled for delivery early next year as President Duterte refocuses the military’s modernization program to tackle growing domestic threats posed by communist rebels and pro-Islamic State militants in Mindanao.
This will be the second time the Philippines is acquiring Bell helicopters. In 2015, it bought eight lower variants of the aircraft for P4.8 billion.
Not attack helicopters
A spokesperson for the Department of National Defense said on Wednesday that the Air Force would use the new batch of Bell helicopters for disaster response and humanitarian missions, but also for “antiterrorism” operations.
Padilla said on Thursday this did not mean the aircraft would be used as “attack helicopters.”
“Not at all. They are purely for utility purposes ergo, transport purposes, especially during HADR operations,” Padilla said, using a military term for disaster response.
Bell Helicopter had said the Philippine military would use the aircraft “for a variety of missions such as disaster relief, search and rescue, passenger transport and utility transport.”
Canadian Ambassador to Manila John Holmes said on Wednesday the versatility of the aircraft would improve the “search-and-rescue and disaster relief capabilities” of the Philippines and would be a “real benefit” to its citizens.
A spokesperson for the Canadian Embassy in Manila said it did not have a comment to make on Thursday.
Human rights violations
During the Association of Southeast Asian Nations Summit in Manila last November, Trudeau said he had called out President Duterte over “human rights, the rule of law, and specifically extrajudicial killings” in the Philippine leader’s brutal war on drugs.
Mr. Duterte later described Trudeau’s comments as “a personal and official insult.”
Trudeau was the only world leader who raised human rights in discussions with Mr. Duterte on the sidelines of the summit.
Nearly 4,000 people have been killed by police in the drug war since June 2016.
Human rights groups claim the death toll is much higher. They also accuse police officers of carrying out illegal killings, staging crime scenes and falsifying reports.
“Human rights is a key element of our foreign policy and of our trade policy,” Champagne said on Wednesday.
The Philippine National Police says officers shoot drug suspects only in self-defense.
The PNP rejects human rights monitors’ description of the killings as a crime against humanity.