After cops’ ambush, Duterte orders war on Reds

President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. KING RODRIGUEZ/ Presidential Photo

BANSALAN, Davao del Sur—President Duterte on Thursday ordered security forces to “wage war” against communist New People’s Army (NPA) rebels who recently killed four police officers in an ambush in Davao del Sur province.

His order came as negotiators from both sides were in Europe for back channel talks to revive peace negotiations, which President Duterte angrily ended last month after the NPA lifted its unilateral truce.

“There are no peace talks yet. It’s totally absent. So in the meantime, I would just also ask the armed forces and the police to just go ahead and wage a war against them. Anything goes,” President Duterte said shortly after visiting the wake of the slain policemen.

“I will allow the police and the military this time to use all available assets,” he said, adding that he was sorry that the “gory incident” had to take place.

He said the military and police could use airplanes, jets, and rockets against the NPA, and said he was sorry for civilians caught in the violence as “collateral damage.”

Mr. Duterte said he was ready for another 50 years of war.

“What you receive, you give also,” he warned, stressing the slain policemen were only doing their job and responding to a distress call when attacked.

“Go ahead, flatten the hills,” he ordered the government security forces.

In Manila, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said the latest attack could affect the possible resumption of peace talks, with the government expected to demand a stop to rebel attacks.

“It will provide some sort of influence, but there’s a bigger thing which is the pursuit of peace,” Abella told reporters in Malacañang.

He said the government panel would likely demand a “firmer action” from the Communist Party of the Philippines and its political arm, the National Democratic Front.

The President, he stressed, had earlier said he wanted the rebels to end its extortion activities and to agree to a bilateral ceasefire.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said communist negotiators led by the husband and wife team of Benito and Wilma Tiamzon and Vicente Ladlad left for Europe on Wednesday night for the back channel talks. Government chief peace adviser Jesus Dureza left a day earlier.

“We in the military and the defense welcome this development because we also want to stop the fighting in the hinterlands in the rural areas so that we can bring development,” he said.

Lorenzana noted that more than 100 congressmen have signed a petition urging a resumption of peace talks, even as President Duterte had earlier laid down some conditions.

But Interior Secretary Ismael Sueno on Thursday ordered the Philippine National Police to act “swiftly” against the NPA, and vowed to help the families of the slain officers.

The policemen were headed to an upland village when they were ambushed. The victims, aboard two vehicles, were just 100 meters from their destination when they were attacked.

Gruesome attack

PNP chief Director General Ronald dela Rosa described the attack as gruesome and said the slain police officers were “shot many times in the head.”

“We have long been talking peace with them but nothing happened. Nothing is happening. I would be retiring soon but the talks had not achieved anything,” he said, but added that he hoped that the rebels would be sincere this time.

“I’m open to talk to the rebels, just not the killers. I’m ready to talk and I’m ready to stop this war. I would prefer for us to not have war, but we need to talk from the heart,” he said.

Dela Rosa, who is expected to retire next year, said he believed the NPA was behind the attack because no other rebel group operated in Bansalan. In 2009, he said a local police chief and three of his men were killed in an attack also blamed on the rebels.

Dela Rosa, who was the police chief in Bansalan in 1991, said the NPA’s Front Committee 51 was known to operate in the area. The gunmen, he said, were known to place grenades under the body of slain enemies. —WITH REPORTS FROM LEILA B. SALAVERRIA, PHILIP C. TUBEZA AND CYNTHIA D. BALANA