Duterte tells youth gangs: I’ll break your bones

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte

DAVAO CITY—Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has ordered a police crackdown on gangs in campuses, warning students who skip classes and hang around outside schools that he would beat them up with a hammer.

“I’ll use a hammer, not rattan,” Duterte said during his Sunday television program, “Gikan sa Masa, Para sa Masa.”

He said he had ordered a police crackdown on gangsterism in schools.

“I’ve already prepared,” Duterte said. “Those who don’t want to attend classes, get out of there. Do not mingle with students, because if the police ask you questions that you can’t answer, I will personally deal with you,” said the tough-talking mayor.

To parents who fail to discipline their children, Duterte said: “Don’t be surprised if you find your children come home unable to walk because I’m going to beat them with a hammer so that they will have trouble walking.”

Loitering

He also said minors found loitering would be taken to the City Social Services and Development Office.

“I will hammer them,” he said. “If their bones will be fractured, bring them to the hospital because I’ll also beat you with a hammer afterward,” Duterte said, addressing himself to parents.

He said students who are not in school and just loitering are a disturbance to students who are serious in their studies.

The city, for the second time in two years, recently received the presidential award for the most child-friendly city, besting four other cities in the highly-urbanized category which included Pasig, Cagayan de Oro, Bacolod and Puerto Princesa.

The 2014 most child-friendly city award was conferred to the city on May 7 at the Philippine International Convention Center.

The city also won the same award in 1998, 1999 and 2013. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao