Duterte warns NPA: Blood will flow

DAVAO CITY, Philippines — As communist rebels stepped up their attacks, President Duterte warned the insurgents that “blood will flow” as he vowed to end the rebellion during his term.

“Lulutang tayo dito sa dugo (We will float in blood). I have no other choice. I do not want to do it but you force my hand into it,” the President said during the regional summit of barangay officials in Region 11 at the RMC-Petro Gazz Arena here on Tuesday night.

Duterte also taunted the communists.

“I have to stop it. You can never, never succeed in overthrowing this government, not in a billion years,” Duterte said.

He vowed to fight the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) and its armed wing the New People’s Army (NPA) to the end of his term in 2022.

“(The communists) will kill this republic and I will not allow it. One day haruson ko ng tanan (I will get all of you). And if I have the identity and I can validate it with the police and the military, dalawa o tatlong araw ubos yan. Lulutang tayo sa dugo. (they will all be dead in two or three days. We will be floating in blood),” the President said.

He said the rebels were disturbing the peace to commit crimes under the pretext of carrying out revolutionary acts.

Duterte said the presidency is a gift from God.

“I had no money when I ran. But my gift to you, the people who elected me and the entire republic, I will give you my sacrifice, I will give up my freedom… What you are doing now, if I have to go to prison, so be it,” the President added.

Duterte said the communist rebels have been forcing their way on the public and claim to be watching government forces.

“Who are you to impose your will on the people without even getting one vote in the name of a revolutionary act?” Duterte said.

Duterte also warned that everything will come to light for communist rebels as well as some members of the military who want to overthrow the government.

“One day it will come to the fore and you will be sorry,” the President pointed out.

Duterte said the public should realize that leaders or public officials are elected by the people, who should be respected.

“Leaders are elected. A leader might be son of a b***h but there is nothing we can do because they are elected by the people. If they are chosen by the people, then we have to respect the choice, even if they act like dogs,” he said.

Duterte dared those who are planning to overthrow the government to go through the proper electoral process.

Protecting lumads

Duterte remains determined to end bloodshed in the country despite his remark that communist rebels do not deserve mercy because of their unlawful acts, Malacañang said yesterday.

“The President is always open to end bloodshed in this country. He doesn’t want any killing among Filipinos,” presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

“But for as long as they violate the terms of a peace talks then the President will never allow it to happen,” he added.

Panelo said the rebels’ recent attacks against government forces raise doubts on the seriousness of their holiday ceasefire.

“If you are going to have a (ceasefire), you might as well show your sincerity by not doing anything contrary to what your intention is,” Panelo added.

Duterte has also announced a plan to “hamlet” lumads or indigenous peoples to shield them from the influence of communist rebels. He said the NPA disrupted the peaceful lives of lumads.

“Hamletting” or the placing of a group of people in an area guarded by government troops was also done during the presidency of Ferdinand Marcos, supposedly to address the threats posed by communist rebels.

“I will hamlet them. Why? Because if they remain scattered they are really in danger. I cannot get their loyalty if they are scattered because they are afraid to be far from each other,” the President on Tuesday.

“You natives won’t be able to say that you’re being imprisoned. But I will make a secure place for you that will be your territory for the meantime. I will be the one to decide whether you’ll be given arms. No one else will be able to enter. You will be the ones who will guard it,” he added.

Duterte ordered government forces to operate in the lumad area to protect them from the communists.

“Guard the place and if you see (NPA rebels), shoot them right away,” the President said.

“Why should you be in a hurry to go first? You have already been assured that I will do the same for you... If they look at you and say, ‘Are you an NPA? Why are you armed?’ Ah shoot him,” he added.

Duterte said he would provide livelihood to the lumads and assured them that they would keep their ancestral lands

Alert status

For his part, Interior and Local Government Secretary Eduardo Año yesterday ordered all police units in the country to be on full alert following the attacks by suspected communist insurgents in the Bicol region.

The attacks, according to Año, only shows the insincerity of the communists in pursuing peace talks with the government.

“The CPP has shown its true colors. What use are the Oslo peace talks and the ceasefires if the other side is not truly interested in genuine peace?” he said.

But Año said they will continue to pursue localized peace talks with NPA units as the government is still bent on ending insurgency in the country.

‘Bloodthirsty tyrant’

As this developed, CPP founding chairman Jose Ma. Sison called Duterte a “bloodthirsty tyrant with a malicious criminal mind.”

In a statement posted on the National Democratic Front of the Philippines website on Tuesday, Sison said since becoming president in 2016, Duterte has unleashed his all-out war against the revolutionary movement.

Sison said there has been no letup in violent attacks and human rights violations by Duterte’s “armed minions” even during periods of ceasefire in the course of the peace negotiations.

“Duterte is a bloodthirsty tyrant, whose favorite mantra is kill, kill, kill! And he has a malicious criminal mind, using any kind of resistance to his all-out war as a further cause for mass murders,” Sison said.

Duterte has terminated the government-NDF peace negotiations in line with his tyrannical character and mad drive for fascist dictatorship, Sison added.

Sison pointed out Duterte’s “disdain for the ceasefire announced by the CPP central committee in solidarity with the Filipino people in the Yuletide season.”

Sison alleged that Duterte has shown no mercy to the Filipino people, especially the workers, peasants and other people, imposing on them a heavy tax burden amid soaring prices of basic commodities.

“He has also shown no mercy to his ordinary troops whose families remain poor despite their doubled salaries and license to kill. Even in the Yuletide season, he deprives them of rest and relaxation with their families and wears them out,” Sison said.

Murder, surrender

Meanwhile, the deputy police chief of Guihulngan City in Negros Oriental was shot dead by suspected communist rebels yesterday.

Senior Insp. Porferio Gabuya Jr. was in a commercial establishment along the national highway in Barangay Poblacion when he was shot at around 10:25 a.m.

Senior Supt. Raul Tacaca, Negros Oriental police director, said the passenger of a motorcycle armed with an M4 rifle shot Gabuya multiple times before escaping.

Witnesses told probers that the suspects’ faces were covered with their shirts and sunglasses.

Gabuya was brought to to Guihulngan District Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival.

Tacaca said Gabuya had been receiving threats from NPA rebels because of leading law enforcement operations against the rebel group.

In Sibagat town in Agusan del Sur province, 12 militiamen and two soldiers were kidnapped by heavily armed NPA rebels who attacked and overran the Army’s Special Forces patrol base.

The communists also took off with a cache of firearms, including 17 M16s, four M14s, two R4 Carbines, one M60 machine gun and one Harris handheld radio.

Initial investigation showed that two rebel groups – Sub-Regional Sentro de Gravidad Westland under a certain Ka Momoy and Guerrilla Front 30 led by a certain Ka Megan – spearheaded the raid.

“The Army’s 3rd Special Forces Battalion is now pursuing the perpetrators who immediately fled after the incident,” said Maj. Gen. Ronald Villanueva, commander of the Cagayan de Oro City-based 4th Infantry Division.

In Zamboanga Peninsula, at least 203 members of the communist rebels surrendered this week to the military, officials said yesterday.

“Their surrender will be a setback for the upcoming 50th Communist Party of the Philippines anniversary because of weakening mass base support,” said Col. Bagnus Gaerlan from the 102nd Army Brigade in Ipil town, Zamboanga Sibugay province.

Maj. Gen. Roseller Murillo, commander of the Army’s 1st Division, thanked those who facilitated the surrender.

“We encourage other NPAs to return to the fold of the law and take advantage of the Enhanced Comprehensive Local Integration Program and spend the yuletide season with their families,” Murillo added. – With Jose Rodel Clapano, Emmanuel Tupas, Gilbert Bayoran, Jaime Laude, Roel Pareño