Duterte to Abus: I’ll eat your liver if you want me to

When President Duterte is angry, he threatens to eat people.

Speaking to local officials in Hagonoy town, Davao del Sur province, late on Wednesday, Mr. Duterte threatened to eat alive the Abu Sayyaf bandits behind the abduction and beheadings of two Vietnamese sailors in a furious reaction to the killings.

“I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you,” Mr. Duterte said.

“I eat anything. I am not picky. I eat even what cannot be swallowed,” he added.

Holding up a cell phone with a picture of the slain Vietnamese sailors, Mr. Duterte angrily cursed the Abu Sayyaf bandits.

“Will we allow ourselves to be enslaved by these people?  Son of a bitch!” Mr. Duterte said.

Seized in maritime attack

The decapitated bodies of Hoang Trung Thong and Hoang Va Hai were recovered by government troops in Upper Tumahubong village in Sumisip town on the island of Basilan early Wednesday, eight months after the sailors were kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf bandits in a maritime attack off Sibago Island.

The two victims were seized with four other members of the crew of the cargo vessel MV Royal 16.

One of the four escaped on June 16. The other three —Pham Minh Tuan, Do Trung Hieu and Tran Khac Dung —are still held by the bandits.

Extreme language

Mr. Duterte often uses extreme language, particularly when talking about terrorists.

After a clash between the military and Abu Sayyaf bandits in April, Mr. Duterte suggested that the way to stop the terrorists was to eat them.

“Make me mad,” he taunted. “Get me a terrorist. Give me salt and vinegar. I will eat his liver.”

Last year, speaking to the Filipino community in Vientiane, Laos, days after a bomb explosion ripped through a night market in his hometown Davao City, killing 15, Mr. Duterte ranted against terrorists.

“If I have to face them, you know I can eat humans. I will really open up your body. Just give me vinegar and salt and I will eat you,” he said.

Abu Sayyaf

Referring to the Abu Sayyaf, he said: “Go ahead, set off bombs. Time will come when I will eat you in front of the people. I will devour you and if I have to, erase you.”

As it turned out, the night market bombers were from the Maute terror group based in Lanao del Sur province.

The Maute group linked up with an Abu Sayyaf faction led by Isnilon Hapilon, who had pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group based in the Middle East, and seized parts of Marawi City on May 23.

An angry Mr. Duterte declared martial law throughout Mindanao to quell the terrorists’ uprising, seen as an attempt to set up an IS enclave in Southeast Asia.

Fighting between government forces and the terrorists has been going on since, displacing most of Marawi’s more than 200,000 residents and costing the lives of more than 470 people, including 351 terrorists and 85 soldiers and policemen. — REPORTS FROM THE WIRES AND INQUIRER RESEARCH