“Nobody wants it.”
This was the reaction of President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, a day after after six police officers were killed and nine other were wounded in a misencounter between with the soldiers in Sta. Rita, Samar.
READ: 6 policemen killed, 9 more hurt in Samar misencounter
“Look at what happened yesterday,” he said in Filipino in a speech during the oathtaking of village officials of Region 9 in Zamboanga del Sur. “It was a misencounter. Nobody wants it.”
The incident happend on Monday morning in a hinterland village in Samar. Some police officers, all members of the 805th Company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion with the rank of police officer 1, were in the area doing security patrol when they met “armed men,” who were later identified as members of the 87th Infantry Battalion based in Calbiga.
“Actually, what happened there is Murphy’s Law. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong. Just like the misencounter,” the President said.
He said he would visit wake of the killed government troops but did not say the date.
“So I want to go there… And I want the Army to go with me,” he said. “It was not intentional. Just the same, we have to show the camaraderie.” /atm