Duterte lashes out at US 'fools' and 'monkeys' for halting arms sale

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has once again hit out at the United States, and this time for halting the planned sale of 26,000 rifles to his country. He called the people behind the decision "fools and "monkeys".

During a televised speech on Wednesday, 2 November, Duterte said he had "lost respect" for Washington.

"Look at these monkeys, the 26,000 firearms we wanted to buy, they don't want to sell. Son of a b***h, we have many homemade guns here. These American fools."

He said Russia and China were willing to sell weapons to the Philippines but he would wait and see if his military wanted to continue using US weapons.

"Russia, they are inviting us. China also. China is open, anything you want, they sent me brochure saying we select there, we'll give you. But I am holding off because I was asking the military if they have any problem. Because if you have, if you want to stick to America, fine."

"But, look closely and balance the situation, they are rude to us. That's why I was rude at them, because they were rude at me."

The US State Department stopped the assault rifles sale to the Philippines police after US senator Ben Cardin's staff said he would oppose it, senate aides told Reuters on Monday.

Cardin, the top Democrat on the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was reportedly not keen on Washington providing weapons when there are concerns about human rights violations.

On Wednesday, a senate aide said, "Committee staff told State that Cardin would block it if it was sent forward. They haven't sent it. Does that mean it has been stopped? I guess that depends on your definition. It would be highly unusual for State to move it forward with explicit opposition."

Over 2,300 people have been killed in the Southeast Asian country during Duterte's bloody war on drugs. The Filipino president had previously railed against the US for questioning him about extra judicial killings.