Duterte asks rebels: Why are we killing each other?

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte ALFRED FRIAS/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MARAWI CITY—“Why are we killing each other?”

This was what President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday asked rebels even as he urged them to work with him.

If they did not want to work with him, President Duterte said rebels can just go to Malacañang and occupy the Palace instead of shooting people.

“You rebels, I will let you go to Malacañang. If they want they can take over it, I’ll just build a new one,” he said.

He said rebels could kill people but they would also end up dead.

“You leave a family behind, you leave a child behind. I am angry with that thought. I pity people, either Christians or Muslims,” President Duterte said.

He said one of the 25 Maute gunmen who had surrendered to authorities recounted to him that he had lost four sons in the five-month long siege of the city.

“It’s such a waste,” the President added.

President Duterte said he could understand if the rebels were fighting for a cause of their own and not an ideology foreign to them.

“Why are you emulating the Arabs? You kill without any reason and then later say you killed because the person was an infidel or non-Muslim,” he added.

President Duterte warned that killing people would result in a never ending violence.