Duterte hits NPA rebels anew in land distribution event

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — President Duterte on Thursday again slammed the communist New People’s Army (NPA) as he distributed 12,548 certificates of land ownership award (Cloas) to 13,595 agrarian reform beneficiaries in Central Mindanao.

The Cloas cover 24,000 hectares of land.

“Whether you like it or not, you, the NPAs out there, you’re headed to your doom. You don’t have food, you’re surrounded by leeches,” the President said at the Cloa distribution ceremonies at Lagao gymnasium at Brgy. Lagao in this city.

“Just like drug addicts, you are causing family dysfunction,” Mr. Duterte said, adding that NPA rebels often leave their children with other people while fighting in the mountains.

What the NPAs have done about land reform so far are mere promises, the President said, addressing the Cloa beneficiaries. In contrast, the government has delivered on its promise of land reform, he added.

Before his speech Duterte again cracked jokes about the bulletproof glass panel in front of him, saying there was no reason to put it there because nobody would kill him. — ORLANDO DINOY