No ceasefire: Duterte orders troops to ‘destroy’ NPA and its legal fronts

President Rodrigo Duterte (Photo by ACE MORANDANTE / Presidential Photographers Division)

Updated @ 1:34 a.m. , Dec. 23, 2018

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Saturday ordered the military to “destroy” the New People’s Army (NPA) as he refused to reciprocate the holiday ceasefire declaration of the rebels. 

“We do not subscribe to their ceasefire. We are ready for anything and I said change your paradigm. Do not fight them. Destroy them. Destroy them. Kill them. Basta destroy. Eh sinong nag-utos? Ako po. Si — magyabang tayo minsan — si five star lang,” Duterte said in a speech before soldiers at Camp Manuel Y. Tan in Compostela Valley.

The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has declared a five-day holiday ceasefire but Malacañang said the government would not declare any ceasefire.

“Law and order means you have to destroy — not really fight, but destroy the Communist Party of the Philippines, including its legal fronts and infrastructure,” Duterte said.

He again told the troops not to mind human rights groups critical of his administration.

“We have to destroy them. Destroy them. Wala namang… Huwag kayo maniwala ng human rights. I assume full responsibility. Nakikita ninyo ako lang ang dinedemanda ng mga gago. Well and good,” he said.

He reiterated that the presidency was “a gifft from God” and that he would be willing to go to jail for the Filipinos.

“Pag ako ang sinabi may kasalanan, aminin ko lahat ‘yan at ako’y makulong. Magpakulong ako. Okay lang. It would be an honor to go to prison for the Filipino,” he said.

He again said that he would hamlet indigenous people to keep them away from the communist rebels.

“We will go back to a sort of a hamletting]That idea was intended for them na habang sana may usap, diyan sila sa hamletting, we will feed them, I will pay for the billeting of their leaders habang nag-uusap,” he said.

The President, in a speech in Davao City on Dec. 19, said the communist rebels do not deserve mercy as he slammed them for being “cruel and brutal.”

READ: Duterte to Reds: You deserve no mercy

He said he no longer considered the NPA as revolutionaries as they are “criminals” and “plain bandits.”

“They are all criminals.  Do not consider them revolutionary. They are just plain bandits and that is the way we should treat them,” Duterte said in his speech during the Barangay Summit on Good Governance Region XI in Davao City. /kga