This summer Glock has emerged as the winner of not only one, but two very substantial contract victories to supply the Philippines National Police and the Armed Forces. The first contract was awarded in June of this year to supply the Filipino National Police Forces with Model 17 Gen 4 9x19mm NATO handguns.

The second contract was only just announced days ago, and was to supply the Filipino Armed Forces with 74,861 Glock 17 Gen4s and accompanying Glock holsters. Historically this is the largest single holster order that has ever been placed with the company’s history, which is interesting considering that the company’s holsters are rarely ever used or even sold commercially. Additionally it appeared that Glock severely underbid ( PHP 1.497 Billion) the competition of Filipino importers Intrade Asia Pacific (PHP 1.557 Billion) with the Sig Sauer P320, and Precision Munitions with the Beretta APX (PHP 1.627 Billion). CZ USA was also considered for the bidding process, but later dropped out due to the company’s proposal being too much for the Armed Forces budget.

Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte has a particular affinity for .45 ACP handguns, to include some Glock 22s that he was interested in procuring for the Armed Forces. He has expressed opinions to the extent of “of providing every soldier a pistol as [an] extra firearm and to defend themselves from NPAs whenever they are not carrying a long firearm.” However with an active component of 172,500 service members, and a reserve component of 325,750 service members, the 74,861 Glock 17s will most likely go towards arming a realistic portion of the Armed Forces; Officer, SNCOs, special operations, and other personnel who cannot carry a service rifle or require a sidearm due to their occupational specialty.

Although the first contract win was through Glock Asia Pacific, the second contract win was by Glock Inc, the U.S. based division of Glock. It currently appears that both of these entities, although geographically separated, were represented by local Filipino-based Trust Trade, a firearms importation and licensing company. Previously the company facilitated the bidding on and subsequent National Police purchase of 59,904 Glock handguns in 2012, with a repeat transaction of 14,975 handguns, bringing a total of 74,879 Glocks in 2012.