{"id":166857,"date":"2018-06-13T01:23:32","date_gmt":"2018-06-13T05:23:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=166857"},"modified":"2018-06-13T01:23:32","modified_gmt":"2018-06-13T05:23:32","slug":"im-willing-to-walk-an-extra-mile-to-achieve-peace-duterte","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/06\/13\/im-willing-to-walk-an-extra-mile-to-achieve-peace-duterte\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I\u2019m willing to walk an extra mile to achieve peace\u2019: Duterte"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cI<\/a>
\u201cI will walk (an) extra mile to have peace in our land,\u201d Duterte said in front of a big crowd who braved the monsoon rains. (ALFRED FRIAS\/PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has expressed willingness to walk an extra mile to achieve peace in the land by continuously reaching out to the enemies of the state.<\/p>\n

The President made this promise in two occasions on Tuesday as he led the nation in celebrating its 120th Independence Day from Spanish rule.<\/p>\n

Duterte first travelled to Kawit, Cavite to lead the morning\u2019s flag-raising ceremony and then delivered a speech interrupted by a group of protesters who repeatedly shouted “fake freedom”.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will walk (an) extra mile to have peace in our land,\u201d Duterte said in front of a big crowd who braved the monsoon rains.<\/p>\n

Later in the day, Duterte went to Pampanga for the oath-taking of the newly-elected village leaders in Region III and assured the local leaders of his willingness to talk peace with the communist and Moro rebels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am not a soldier, I am not a policeman. I am a government worker elected by the people to search the elusive peace for our nation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Duterte repeated his invitation to Communist Party of the Philippines (CCP) founding leader Ma. Jose Sison to come home and talk peace within 60 days.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will talk to the enemies of the state in search of peace and that is why I have invited Sison to come home peacefully, and I will guarantee his personal safety and security\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The popular Filipino leader, however, said if the peace talks fail, he will escort Sison out of the country.<\/p>\n

\u201cShould the peace talks prevail, then we would be lucky and I would thank God for it. But if not, I said, I will personally escort him to the airport and I will see to it that he will fly out alive,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow as to he\u2019s coming back, that\u2019s out of the question because he is facing charges,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte said he is also building peace with Moro rebels particularly with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) chairman Al Haj Murad Ebrahim and Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) founding chair Nur Misuari.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m talking to Murad, the BBL. Then to Nur Misuari. Nur Misuari, maybe he realizes that at the end of the day, on our sunset days, we need to push for peace,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

He said government and the enemies of the states cannot fight forever, stressing that he is not a wartime President.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no business going to war against my own people. I told them, let\u2019s talk. Violence is one thing that I must avoid at all cost,\u201d the President said.<\/p>\n

Duterte is hoping that the two houses of Congress \u2013 Senate and House of Representatives – will pass the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL).<\/p>\n

Though the heroes of the past had liberated the nation from \u201cforeign subjugation,\u201d Duterte said the Filipinos are still facing modern challenges such as poverty, corruption, environmental degradation, terrorism, criminality, and illegal drugs.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt this crucial juncture in our history, we need to draw strength from the lessons of our past to ensure that these ills do not cause any more damage to our future,\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

Duterte vowed to pursue his fight against corruption and illegal drugs as well as criminality and terrorism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo R. Duterte has expressed willingness to walk an extra mile to achieve peace in the land by …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":166096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[13944],"class_list":["post-166857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","tag-president-rodrigo-r-duterte","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=166857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/166857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/166096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=166857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=166857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=166857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}