Bringing the best of Philippines to the world

Armscor showcases products at biggest international firearms expo

LAS VEGAS – The world’s biggest gathering of firearms makers fired off to a great start on Tuesday, with a Philippine-based firm taking a shot at being one of the top-notch manufacturers of guns and ammunition worldwide.

At its strategically positioned booth in this year’s Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show, an event of The Firearm Industry Trade Association in the US, officials of Armscor Global Defense Inc. (AGDI) laid out an extensive array of the company’s best-selling guns, including over 25 new additions to its growing family, bannered by the much-anticipated release of the RIA 5.0 pistol.

RIA stands for Rock Island Armory, an affiliate brand that opened a manufacturing facility in Cedar City, Utah just last year.

Featured on the latest issue of the American Handgunner, the RIA 5.0 is “something legitimately radical, new, fresh and different.”

Designed by engineers at its main plant in Marikina, the RIA 5.0 has a patented RVS recoil system engineered to maximize barrel mass and linear movement for soft recoil.

“Where design influence in most modern combat handguns track back a century or more, the RIA 5.0 is legitimately groundbreaking,” the publication said.

Martin Tuason, chairman/president and CEO of AGDI, which is now the largest privately owned producer of firearms and ammunition in Southeast Asia, said they are gearing up for a better year in 2023 as the global economy continues to recover from the pandemic.

“We had our best years during the pandemic despite the challenges we had to face – the gun ban in the Philippines, the school shootings in the US... – but we overcame them,” he said.

He added that with this year’s SHOT Show, “this event will continue to help us bring the best of the Philippines to the world.”

“It was a very exciting show. The SHOT Show is the biggest international shooting, hunting and outdoor trade show. And we had so many people visiting our booth. We launched a new firearm with Filipino ingenuity made here in the US, and we had a very good response,” said Gina Marie Angangco, SEVP, deputy CEO and director of AGDI.

“We’re very proud that Filipinos can be very competitive in the international market. You’ve seen the other booths around us, all the big players, and we are in line with all of them. So that’s great for the Philippines,” she said.

AGDI now exports to over 65 countries worldwide, including the US, Europe, South America, Australia and Southeast Asia.

Cristina Tuason-Gonzalez, SVP and chief corporate relations officer of AGDI, said they have been participating in the SHOT Show for over 30 years already, with each year bigger than the preceding year.

“I think it’s going to be better for us this year, we’re going to be joining in bids for more government contracts,” she said, as the company pivots into the defense industry with supply bids in military and law enforcement agencies.

“We’re coming up with more new products and is on the frontline in developing the defense industry in the Philippines. If you look at Korea, India, Turkey, Indonesia and Malaysia, we were ahead of them as far as self reliance so many years back. They’ve overtaken us so we now have to play catch up. And that’s by passing legislation which we call the Philippine Defense Industry Development Act. It’s not just for Armscor but for the industry as well,” Angangco said.

At the SHOT Show, more than 2,400 companies are exhibiting in two main venues – The Venetian Expo and Caesars Forum. The show is designed not only to showcase products but also to meet the needs of nearly every segment of industry – manufacturers, wholesalers, retailers, shooting range operators, suppliers and associated groups involved with hunting, shooting, conservation and firearm safety.