Duterte: I can be more ruthless than terrorists
Print Edition
PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte warned yesterday that he could be “50 times” more brutal than Muslim militants who stage beheadings and said he could even “eat” the extremists if they’re captured alive by troops.
Duterte has repeatedly threatened drug suspects with death, but he raised his shock rhetoric to a new level as president when he said in a speech during the opening of a national sports tournament what he could do to terrorists who have staged beheadings and other gruesome attacks.
Duterte ordered troops to kill fleeing Muslim militants behind a foiled attack in the central resort province of Bohol on Saturday and not bring them to him alive, calling the extremists “animals.”
“If you want me to be an animal, I’m also used to that. We’re just the same,” Duterte said. “I can dish out, go down what you can 50 times over.”
After a massive manhunt, Philippine forces killed at least four suspected Muslim militants on Saturday near Clarin town in Bohol where troops had foiled possible kidnapping and bombing plots by extremists earlier this month, officials said.
Army troops and police killed ringleader Joselito Melloria in a gun battle with about seven militants. Melloria’s companions fled and three of them were later killed by troops, military chief of staff General Eduardo Ano said.
Duterte had offered a 1 million peso (US$20,000) reward for information leading to their capture.
The president said that if a terrorist was presented to him when he’s in a foul mood, “give me salt and vinegar and I’ll eat his liver.”
The crowd broke into laughter, but Duterte cut in, “It’s true, if you make me angry.”
Duterte, a longtime mayor of Davao City who built an image as a deadly crime-buster, won the presidency in May last year on a promise to battle illegal drugs, corruption and terrorism. Thousands have died under his anti-drug crackdown.
He has warned he may place the southern Philippines, scene of a decades-long Muslim separatist rebellion, under martial rule if terrorism threats spin out of control.
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