MANILA — Angered by the spate of killings in Negros Oriental, President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday vowed that the communist groups will have to pay for their crimes committed against the Filipinos and the government.
“I’ve been telling you, I will implement a more severe measure. What — what is it? Maghintay lang kayo. Kasi sabi ko sumosobra na kayo (Just you wait, you have crossed the line),” the President said in his speech during the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) to agrarian reform beneficiaries in Davao City.
Duterte was saddened by the ISIS-style execution of Negros cops, Cpl. Relebert Beronio, and Patrolmen Raffy Callao, Roel Cabellon, Marquino de Leon by communist rebels as medical reports showed severe hematomas all over their bodies.
A few days after the bodies were found in Ayungon on July 18 this year, the national government raised a PHP5-million bounty for the capture of the killers.
“I will not take it sitting down, I told my military and police, “Gawin mo sa kanila (Do it to them also),” he said.
“The local government’s down. I will not allow you to do that. I will not. I will give you a tit for tat. That’s my order to the military. Give them what they deserve,” he said, adding that communists are not fighting a conventional war and are violators of the Geneva Convention.
He also noted that the presence of communists in the rural areas halts development plans of the government.
“The countryside is infested with parasites like you. You do not work, you exact taxation,” Duterte said.
He added that Karapatan, a human rights group that supports the causes of communism, operates as a legal front of the communist party.
“Itong mga komunista (These communists), they’re blaming government for the killings when actually you [they] started the spate of murders there,” he added, recalling the fatal shootout that killed nine sugar farmers in Sagay City, Negros Occidental in October 2018.
“I only want law-abiding citizens walking the streets at night. I do not want gangsters and muggers walking around,” he said.