MAGUINDANAO, Philippines -- President Rodridgo Duterte on Friday assured soldiers in central Mindanao of utmost medical care if injured in clashes with terrorists and drug traffickers.
Duterte made the promise before hundreds of enlisted personnel and officers of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division while at Camp Siongco in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao on Friday afternoon.
Duterte came to pin merit medals on 12 soldiers wounded in firefights with the group of wanted Ampatuan Mayor Rasul Sangki in a hinterland in Ampatuan town in Maguindanao on Thursday.
Sangki, who was elected mayor of Ampatuan in May 2016, is included in Duterte’s list of politicians allegedly involved in the trafficking of narcotics.
Duterte said all of the government’s fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters can be used anytime to airlift wounded soldiers from the field to any hospital anywhere in the country.
“Don’t worry about me, for I can take commercial flights. You can use even the presidential choppers,” he told the personnel of 6th ID during a traditional military “talk to the men” session.
While at Camp Siongco Hospital, Duterte lauded physicians, nurses and Army medical attendants for taking care of soldiers wounded in combat.
No fewer than a hundred soldiers from different units of the 6th ID have been wounded in recurring encounters since 2010 with members of the outlawed Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters in areas supposedly covered by the government’s ceasefire accord with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
The BIFF, an outlaw group not covered by the ceasefire pact, boasts loyalty to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria.
The group, which splintered from the MILF in 2010, uses the black ISIS flag as banner and has been enforcing a ruthless Taliban-style justice system in isolated areas. Muslim residents reject the practice for being obsolete and barbaric.
Duterte told soldiers at Camp Siongco the spread of local groups with “ISIS ideology” is a problem his administration is trying to address effectively.
He also implored the Moro National Liberation Front and Moro Islamic Liberation Front -- rebel groups that the government has signed peace pacts with -- not to give members of terror groups sanctuary in their camps and communities.