Duterte to Abu Sayyaf: Stop banditry, let’s not be cruel

President Duterte appealed anew to the Abu Sayyaf Group to stop kidnapping civilians and their other criminal activities as he stressed that he did not want to fight his fellow Filipinos.

The President urged the Islamic State-inspired bandits to stop their “cruel” activities, which he said were not the nature of the Malay race.

“My message to the Abu Sayyaf is, I come in peace. I hear that you are angry with me. Why are you angry with me? What did I do to the Moros for you to get angry?” he said during a visit to fire victims at Barangay Labuan, Zamboanga City, on Thursday night.

“Let us not be so cruel because we are not like that. Us Malays, we are not like that. We are not as vicious as the Arabs. I am not insulting the Arabs, they just fight like that,” he said.

“I don’t want to fight my brothers … it’s easy to send the new jets and bomb the entire place. But if you declare war, the innocent ones would be affected.” —JULIE M. AURELIO