Rody tells Reds: No more talk, let’s fight

Maybe I will kill you, Rody tells Joma

DAVAO CITY, Philippines – Saying he has had enough, President Duterte declared yesterday that it’s time to resume fighting as communist rebels continued their attacks on government forces, the latest of which killed six policemen in Negros Oriental.

“Let us stop talking. I am tired. Let us start fighting,” Duterte said in remarks addressed to Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison at a gathering of more than 300 participants in a business conference  here.

“Let us renew the fighting for another 50 years. Let the Filipino sacrifice karamihan sa mga sundalo ko (most of my soldiers). Let us agree on that, no quarters given, no quarters asked,” he added.

In an interview after the Davao Investment Conference at the SMX Convention Center, Duterte said he had “decided to abandon the talks” with communist rebels represented by the National Democratic Front (NDF), citing New People’s Army (NPA) atrocities and lack of sincerity.  

He added he was supportive of the move of the Office of the Solicitor General to suspend the bail for the temporary release of political prisoners.

“I am sorry, please do not resist with a firearm or violence… do not resist, surrender, because we agreed that you are released conditionally,” he said.  “Since there are no more talks, stick to the agreement and surrender. You will be hunted. I will see to it.”

The President also lambasted the NPA – the NDF’s armed wing – for living off the “fat of the land” or what the rebels call revolutionary taxes.

“Stop it. Do not ask from the people that revolutionary taxes which you get even from the poor in the hinterlands. You get even their food,” he said.

He also lashed out at Sison for calling him a bully. “The NDF branded me as a bully. Correct you are 100 percent. I bully people who try to topple government and all the enemies of the state. That is my job, to bully you and to kill you, because there is a war going on between us and you,” the President said.

“And you are killing my soldiers and policemen, so I bully you,” he said. “When the time comes, maybe I will kill you if I have the chance. I will have… I’ll give you the pleasure of doing it to me.”

Duterte even recalled how he shot a former schoolmate at San Beda College when he was still a law student.  

Wasted time

He also slammed Sison for saying that martial law has rendered the peace talks with the communists unnecessary. “I believe you, Mr. Sison. You are right. We stop talking. We’re wasting our time,” Duterte said.

“This war that you are fighting, I was listening to you when I was a student. That was 50 years ago. Let us renew the fighting for another 50 years. If it’s what you want,” the President said, addressing his former professor at the Lyceum of the Philippines University.

“Anyway, all of us will not see the light of day of this revolution of yours. That is too far away, 50 years,” he said.

He also claimed Sison is dying of stomach disease.

“Let the Filipinos sacrifice. Karamihan naman ng mga sundalo mo mahirap, taga-bukid and the lumads, and the indigenous people (most of your fighters are poor, live in the fields, and are lumads). Let them die,” he said.

As commander-in-chief, Duterte said he has the support of more than 100,000 armed forces to go after the communist rebels. “Me, I have an – I have an Armed Forces and Navy and police. I can fight for another 50 years. Let us agree on that. And let us be ferocious at each other,” he said.

But he said he would not hesitate to help in their basic needs NPA fighters who would surrender and abandon the communist ideology.

Duterte cited an incident early this week when members of the Presidential Security Group were caught in an encounter with the rebels.

He said only the political opposition, now led by the Liberal Party – will rejoice if he gets killed in an ambush. “Do not be offended, it’s party time for the yellow to go the streets and shout,” he said.

He said it was destiny that led him to the presidency. “We are ruled by destiny. This is your time. So slow down a bit. Nobody believes in you. It’s my time to be President. But tomorrow – that’s destiny,” he said.

Just on hold

At Malacañang, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella clarified the peace talks with the NDF remain “on hold” and not totally scrapped.

“Regarding the peace talks… everything is on hold at this stage until there is – the conditions that are favorable will be agreed upon by both parties,” he said.

National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon revealed that 80 percent of NPA’s logistical strength is in Mindanao.

Also at Malacañang, Esperon said the NPA is still considered an “enemy of the state,” especially now that its men have intensified attacks against government troops.

“Oh yes. For all intents and purposes, they are an armed group with about 4,000 armed men whose ultimate aim is to topple government and take over with their kind of governance that they want,” Esperon said.

“So if they win, let’s not expect to keep our way of life, democratic way of life. They don’t change,” Esperon added.

With peace talks with the communist now on hold, Esperon said government operations against the rebels would continue.

“We are conducting operations against the CPP-NPA. Pero kapag may ceasefire, tigil tayo. But during ceasefires, they may not commit and violate laws of the land. Kung ginagawa nilang extortion, eh ano iyan, you cannot allow that,” he said.

“When they attack civilians, you cannot allow that. You have to go after them,” the national security adviser said.

As far as Esperon is concerned, the government should address all threats, including from the NPA, “simultaneously.”

“So we have to address the threats in Mindanao. But there are beyond the talks of martial law and all this emergency measures,” he said.

Treachery

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana called the NPA attacks treacherous as they came at a time when government forces were fighting terrorists in Mindanao.

“Do you really want peace or do you want to continue down the bloody path of war?”

In a statement, he denounced how the rebel group showed “utter lack of empathy towards our suffering countrymen” in Marawi.

Lorenzana cited NPA atrocities in Gumaca, Quezon where they burned public works equipment, in Bukidnon where they attacked and killed a police officer, in Quirino where they blasted landmines that hurt six soldiers, and in Surigao del Sur where they destroyed plantations.

He also cited the killing of soldiers buying food in a market. In North Cotabato, he recalled the attack on officers of the Presidential Security Group.

“We are all for peace. Who doesn’t want peace? But we can only talk about peace when both sides mean what they say. I trust the integrity and sincerity of the government peace panel,” he said.

“I, however, question the sincerity, integrity and motives of the other side,” he said.

“We can’t go on like this forever,” he added.

The Office of the Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process for its part, said it would only follow whatever instructions come from Duterte, presidential adviser on the peace process Jesus Dureza said yesterday.  

“Take it the way the President says it exactly… then u (you) will never go wrong. We don’t give reactions to pres’ (president’s) public statements. We treat them as his guidance to us,” Dureza said in a text message to The STAR.

Maj. Ezra Balagtey, spokesman for the Davao City-based Eastern Mindanao Command said the rebels apparently wanted to embarrass the administration with their recent attacks.

“The directive to the NPAs to launch attacks nationwide during the State of the Nation Address of President Rodrigo Duterte, particularly in Davao region, is nothing but a way to embarrass the current administration,” Balagtey said.

The military and other law enforcement agencies, he said, “are not taking lightly the current security development,” he said, adding that “soldiers are always be in the forefront to defend the people and the state.

“While their (NPAs) heads are on the table, talking for peace with the government, they are also conducting atrocities which make the almost 50 years of making truce with their group hard,” Balagtey said. – With Jaime Laude, Jose Rodel Clapano