Duterte names Red rebels, Daesh backers as ‘terrorists’

MANILA: President Rodrigo “Rody” Duterte minced no words in tagging communist rebels as “terrorists” who “want to be treated with another set of law” ater they launched a Maoist-style insurgency against the government for more than 50 years, considered the longest in the region.

Duterte also said Daesh-linked terror groups like the Abu Sayyaf belonged to the same category particularly those who set off explosives, citing as an example the bomb blasts that killed more than 20 people and wounded about 100 others at the Catholic cathedral in the capital town of Jolo, Sulu in January last year.

“That’s the problem there...they think they are a different breed. They would like to be treated with another set of law when, as a matter of fact, they are terrorists,” Duterte said in a televised but recorded nationwide speech aired on Wednesday morning.

He added: “I finally declared them to be one. Why? Because...i spent most of my days as president trying to figure out and connect with them on how we can arrive at a peaceful solution.”

The president was referring to the initiatives he had taken to talk peace with the communist insurgents and bring to an end a decades-long insurgency that killed thousands not only of soldiers and rebels but innocent civilians in the countryside.

Under Duterte, the government resumed negotiations with the insurgents through the National Democratic Front, the political arm of the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed component the New People’s Army (CPP-NPA) in Oslo, Norway as the third party facilitator.

But Duterte formally announced the cancellation of the talks as he denounced the Maoists for launching atacks against the government forces while their representatives were talking peace with the government in Norway.

The president also denounced the Maoists for engaging in high profile extortion by victimising businessmen especially those owning mining and bus companies by sending them leters demanding payment of “revolutionary taxes.”