Duterte condemns NPA attack in N. Samar, likens rebel group to ISIS

President Rodrigo Duterte speaks at the 7th LGBT Year-end Gathering at The Tent in Azuela Cove Lanang, Davao City on Sunday, Dec. 17, 2017. (Photo from an RTVM video)

President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday likened the communists rebels to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

Duterte made the remark as he condemned the attack of New People’s Army rebels on soldiers providing relief to victims of Tropical Storm “Urduja” in Northern Samar.

READ: 2 soldiers injured in ambush by NPA rebels in Northern Samar

“I am sick and tired of talking to you. Pareho kayo ng ISIS. It’s an empty thing. There is no ideology except to destroy and kill,” Duterte said during a speech at Camp Crame after he arrived from a visit to typhoon-hit Biliran.

During his visit in Biliran, the President condemned the attack of the NPA rebels.

“I strongly protest and I condemn the actions of the New People’s Army. I would say that this is something which I have been telling you all along. It does not have the ideology anymore,” he said.

He said “the ideology they have nurtured for years is already gone. They are just a bunch of brigands.”

“That is why it is no longer even productive for us to be talking to them. Ayaw ko na. And my request to the Armed Forces is really to just finish them,” he said.

On Dec. 5 Duterte issued Proclamation 374, classifying the the Communist Party of the Philippines and the NPA as terrorist groups.

He had earlier insisted that there would be no Christmas truce with the rebels. /atm