A few months earlier, the president of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, resigned from finalizing the contract for the purchase of 16 rotorcraft Bell 412 EPI, supplied by the Canadian company Canadian Commercial Corporation.
Then, the purchase of several other types of helicopters was considered - American S-70, Russian Mi-171, South Korean Surion and Italian-British AW139 were involved. Under the budget - 240 million USD - it was possible to buy 16 Bell machines, but only - for example - 10 Surions. He added that the initial price of S-70 also allowed to buy at most 10 helicopters, but eventually the manufacturer changed the offer, thanks to which the funds will allow to buy 16 machines.
Lorenzana (Philippines minister of defence) said that the American helicopters would, most likely, also be equipped with machine guns, but their main task would be "transport missions".
According to Philippines politics, the Russian offer was also attractive, which was taken very seriously.
The contract for the supply of 16 S-70 helicopters is to be signed at the beginning of next year.
Another recommendation of the Filipino defense ministry working group concerned the purchase of an attack helicopter. In this case, the ATA T129 produced in Turkey was selected. Lorenzana said that the funds will allow you to buy "less than ten machines of this type, maybe eight".