Duterte to meet PNP, AFP commanders in Mindanao

MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte will visit Mindanao to meet with military and police commanders following the so-called misencounter between the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in Jolo, Sulu that left four soldiers dead.

According to Interior Secretary Eduardo Año, Duterte’s visit will happen “very soon” but he did not disclose further details due to security reasons.

“The President is going to the South to talk to our PNP and AFP commanders (there), sabi ko nga kung may time pa siya kausapin niya yung mga suspect (I even told him to visit the suspects if he has time),” Año said in a televised Palace press briefing.

Earlier, Duterte’s spokesman Harry Roque said the Commander-in-Chief was saddened by the incident.

Philippine Army chief Lieutenant General Gilbert Gapay denounced what he called the murder of four soldiers who were returning from an intelligence mission when they were gunned down by police officers in Jolo, Sulu.

The PNP initially claimed that the incident was a “misencounter” but Gapay rejected it and said that “it was a rubout.”

The chief of Jolo Municipal police has been relieved, along with the nine police officers involved in the killing of the soldiers.

The National Bureau of Investigation is already conducting an investigation into the incident.

EDV