Duterte says he can’t eliminate ISIS problem within his term

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech during the Partido Demokratiko Pilipino-Lakas ng Bayan (PDP-Laban) campaign rally at the University of Science and Technology of Southern Philippines in Cagayan de Oro City on March 24, 2019. ROBINSON NIÑAL JR./PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—President Rodrigo Duterte has conceded that he cannot eradicate the prevalence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in the country in the remaining three years of his presidency.

“I do not think that I would be able to solve it during the last remaining three years of my term,” Duterte said Sunday night during the campaign rally of PDP-Laban in Cagayan De Oro City.

“But I am trying my best to reduce it to the barest minimum possible,” he added.

The President again called the ideology of ISIS—a group notorious for suicide bombings and beheading captives—a corrupt one.

“The ISIS is a totally corrupt ideology. They would kidnap. And at the end of the day even if the ransom has been paid, they would still slit the victim’s throat and record it,” he said.

Duterte earlier issued a sweeping warning against ISIS-inspired terrorists, saying that he will hold no prisoners as he will just kill them.

The President issued the threat days after he ordered the military to pound terrorists’ camps in the hinterlands of Mindanao./gsg

READ: Duterte to ISIS: ‘Do not surrender because I will kill you’