(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday reiterated he no longer wants to talk to communists, this after their armed group ambushed a Presidential Security Group convoy in North Cotabato.
“I believe you Mr. Sison, you are right..You stop talking..Let us renew the fighting for another 50 years, it’s what you want…I can fight for another 50 years, let us agree on that. Let us stop talking. I am tired,” the President said, referring to the Communist Party of the Philippines founder Jose Maria Sison.
Duterte also had an answer for Sison’s statement the President was a “bully,” saying he was one when it comes to “enemies of the state.”
“Correct. Tama ka diyan 100 percent. I bully people who try to topple government..That is my job. And to kill you because there is a war (between the government and the communists). Because you kill my soldiers..You threaten us. Who are you threatening? Wag mo ako takutin, I am a bully, I really am,” an obviously angry Duterte told his former professor, who he said was “dying” because of a sickness in his stomach.
The President lashed out at the communists also for what he said was their practice of revolutionary taxation even in the houses of ordinary people in the provinces.
He at the same time, however, also called on the CPP’s armed group, the New People’s Army, to lay down their arms, noting that he would give them jobs immediately.
“Punta kayo..I’ll make you soldiers right away,” he said.
At least one person was killed and several others injured after members of the NPA ambushed a Presidential Security Group convoy in North Cotabato on Wednesday.