JPE: Like Duterte, Marcos also blocked from buying US arms over human rights

During Monday night's Talk to the People briefing, when President Rodrigo Duterte said that the US had balked at selling the Philippines arms because of his human rights record, former Senator Juan Ponce Enrile laughed and said that the same thing happened to former President Ferdinand Marcos.

"Kami nga eh, 20 years po ako sa gobyerno ni Presidente Marcos, panay second-hand ang binibigay sa atin [ng US], yung mga bulok na mga barko," recounted Enrile.

"Yung mga Sikorsky [helicopters] natin, hindi ibinigay yun. Binili natin yun. Pera ng Pilipino yun, hindi ng galing sa bulsa ng Amerika."

Duterte went on relate how his attempt to acquire 23,000 assault rifles for the Philippine National Police was thwarted by the US Congress "because human rights violator daw ako and [the rifles] would be used against my citizens."

"Hindi lang ikaw po ang ginanyan nila. Si Presidente Marcos nga eh," interjected Enrile

According to a November 2016 Reuters wire service report, the US State Department halted the planned sale of some 26,000 assault rifles to the PNP after Senator Ben Cardin said he would oppose it.

Aides said Cardin, the top Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reluctant for the United States to provide the weapons given concerns about human rights violations in the Philippines.

In December of 2020, the International Criminal Court's Office of the Prosecutor said there was a "reasonable basis" to believe that crimes against humanity were committed in the Duterte Administration's war on drugs. 

Meanwhile, in 2003, the Supreme Court ruled with finality that the 10,000 human rights victims during Marcos’ martial law regime were entitled to  compensation from Marcos' $10 billion Swiss bank deposits, which the ruling also deemed to be ill-gotten. — DVM, GMA News