MANILA, Philippines—President Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday said he would order the Philippine Navy to search and “blast” pirates, weeks after 11 Filipino sailors were reportedly abducted in separate incidents in waters off the West African nations of Togo and Benin.
“I will send the Navy there, kapag nakita nila ‘yung mga…patayin nalang nila. Tabla-tabla na lang (…if they spot those pirates, kill them),” Duterte said during the awarding ceremony for the Presidential Award for Child-Friendly Municipalities and Cities in Malacañang.
Early this month, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) confirmed that two Filipino crew members of a Greek-flagged ship had been abducted by pirates off the coast of Togo’s capital, Lome, on Nov. 4. Two days prior, pirates abducted nine Filipino crew members from a Norwegian-flagged boat off Benin’s coast.
The President even claimed that he dared the South Korean government to “blast” pirates off the sea when three Filipinos and a South Korean national were abducted by an armed group at a water project site in Western Libya last July 2018. They were released 10 months later.
Duterte said that he doesn’t care even if human rights advocates disapprove of his order.
Duterte also blamed the United Nations’ alleged failure to establish peace and order there.
According to Duterte, the UN, whom he labeled as an “inutile” body, has failed to take “punitive actions” against the pirates after the kidnapping of Filipinos.
“Kung hindi Hapon, Pilipino, Indonesians. They are the favorite in the minnow of the pirates. Ang isip-isip ko, I’m kind of telling the United Nations. Napaka-inutil naman ninyo diyan. I mean… It has been an inutile body actually,” Duterte said.
(If not Japanese, Filipinos, Indonesians. They are the favorite in the minnow of the pirates. I come to think…I’m kind of telling the United Nations. You are very useless there. I mean… It has been an inutile body actually.)
“The United Nations has failed to establish order on this planet and…it has not prevented wars, it has not taken any punitive actions against the pirates,” he added.