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Palace says Duterte takes full responsibility on police-soldier clash
FILE: President Rodrigo Roa Duterte posthumously awards the Order of Lapu-Lapu Rank of Kalasag to one of the police officers, who were killed in an alleged misencounter with troops from the Philippine Army in Samar on June 25, 2018. The President visited the wake of the killed police officers at the Police Regional 8 Headquarters in Camp Ruperto Kangleon, Palo, Leyte on June 29, 2018. Also in the photo are Philippine National Police Director General Oscar Albayalde, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana, and Sec. Bong Go of the Office of the Special Assistant to the President. ACE MORANDANTE/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
The President has taken full responsibility for the “misencounter” that took the lives of six policemen to stop the finger-pointing.
This was according to Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque, Jr. who sent a text message to reporters on Saturday, June 30 to laud President Rodrigo Roa Duterte.
“It’s to end the blame game. Spoken like a true leader, the buck stops with him,” Roque said.
“It’s an unfortunate incident which should not happen again. Closer coordination can be expected between the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) and the PNP (Philippine National Police) in future ground combat operations,” the spokesman added.
A 20-minute gunfight was exchanged between PNP’s 805th Company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion and the 87th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army on June 25 when the police forces were conducting minor combat operations. Apart from the six police officers that died, nine were also wounded in the incident.
During a speech in Tacloban on Friday, June 29, Duterte took the blame for the misencounter.
“I came here to visit the wounded soldiers and policemen in a very unfortunate event. So nagbigay po ako ng ano, na (I said) for both the Filipino soldiers and the Filipino policemen, I’d like to tell you that I take the ultimate blame, fault is on me being the Commander-in-Chief,” the President said.
“I do not want to use the word. But ako po ‘yung pinaka nila (I am their leader) And so there was a lot of tragic stories weaved around the incident. Sabi ko sa kanila, ‘Kalimutan na lang ninyo. Tutal, hindi naman sinasadya (I told them, ‘Forget it since it was not intentional),’” he added.
Furthermore, Duterte added that he is the commander of both the police and the army.
“And so you – let’s just say it’s all my fault. But since you are all my soldiers, let us forget the hurts, allow the investigation to go on, and let us see what develops in the future,” he continued.
