QUEZON City, Philippines (January 18) – In one of the recent speeches given by President Rodrigo Duterte, he addressed the rampant kidnapping plaguing the country by saying that he will put a stop to it by blasting the perpetrators – even if they have hostages.
Yes, it suddenly went a turn to the unreal. Is the President serious? Or he is again making one of his infamous jokes?
In his speech, President Duterte ordered the blasting terrorists even if there are civilians or even if they have hostages. “You can’t gain mileage for your wrongdoings, I will really have you blasted,” he said.
The President added that he instructed the Navy and the Coast Guard that “if there are kidnappers and they’re trying to escape, bomb them all.”
He made the speech when he met businessmen in Davao.
Duterte’s adviser dealing with insurgents, Jesus Dureza, said he was not aware of any ransom being paid in exchange for the freedom of the sailors. At least 27 hostages, many of them foreign crewmen, remain in the hands of different Abu Sayyaf factions, he added.
There have been persistent speculations, however, that most of the freed hostages have been ransomed off.Without a known foreign source of funds, the Abu Sayyaf Group has survived mostly on activities like kidnapping for ransom, extortion and other acts of banditry.
Once again, the President’s speech creates a forum of discussion with pro-human rights group expressing their abhorrence for the loss of innocent lives while supporters of the President agreed that such drastic measures may be what is needed to solve the kidnapping problem once and for all.
Personally, I think that this is a good idea. To clarify, I do not like getting people killed. But on the other hand, if this means that kidnapping and other similar activities will be lessened – if not totally eradicated – then it is good. With such policy in place, kidnappers will eventually have no more reason to kidnap people because of the high probability that they will die in the process. But then again, I think that the President is just kidding when he made the statement – we all know how he is when he is in the moment.
But he gets his point through. And that point is: The government will not negotiate with kidnappers and terrorists.
Again this is all just my humble opinion, how about you? Do you believe that the rampant kidnapping in the country deserves drastic measures?
(written by Juan Bernardo Tierra, edited by Jay Paul Carlos, additional research by Vince Alvin Villarin)