Duterte tells generals, soldiers: Wear Filipino

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday said that he would like to see the military’s generals wearing locally-made boots as he told government officials that they should be wearing more Philippine products.

Speaking before he departed for a four-day official visit to Russia, the president brandished a Filipino brand watch which he described as “elegant.”

He also told many senior officials in his audience that everybody in government should wear Filipino products in an effort to promote them in local and international markets.

“It’s very elegant. Of course it’s not solid gold. Nothing of the sort. It’s gold-plated but very elegant. So everybody in government should be wearing Filipino-made. Including the shoes. I’m wearing mine. Marikina. If we will not promote our products, then who will? Di tayo na mismo,” Duterte told his audience.

The chief executive said that he would like to see the generals and soldiers of the Armed Forces of the Philippines using boots from Marikina, a city known for its local shoe industry. 

He said that for this to happen the government needed to fund the local shoe industry and provide it machinery for it to produce good-quality products.

“I’d like to see the generals wearing the boots of Marikina. They’re good ones. Totoo. Someday we will order all our requirements, sapatos dito sa Marikina. All we have to do is to fund them. Buy them the machines, so they can make good shoes,” he said.

In March, the Philippine International Trading Corporation of the Department of Trade and Industry announced that it was recommending the award of a Philippine Army contract for 59,218 pairs of combat boots to Marikina-based Gibson's Shoe Factory. It issued similar recommendations for Gibson's boots in 2016 and in 2015. 

The Army announced in 2015 that it would buy 24,000 pairs of combat boots after troops reported issues with locally-made "Kubar" boots that some said were "only good for garrison duties on dry areas like deserts but not in muddy places of Mindanao, Visayas and Luzon." The boots were also allegedly overpriced.

Duterte is visiting the Russian capital this week in an effort to write a new chapter in Manila’s relationship with Moscow. The president said that the Philippines had heavily relied on its traditional partners that severely limited its options in the international arena, in a subtle dig at its treaty partner and old ally, the US.

The chief executive’s visit is part of his so-called “independent foreign policy” which saw the Philippines build warmer relations with non-traditional allies like Russia and China.