AFP told: Spare civilians when pursuing Sayyaf

President Duterte has ordered the military to avoid civilian casualties in the operations against the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan and Sulu.

Duterte stressed the military should be wary of collateral damage during operations.

“I will not allow civilians to be killed in the process,” he said.

Duterte said the offensive operations are strong but the military is prevented from applying the full force of their might once the enemy takes cover in communities.

“We have to go into selective targets. For example, if they are in the midst of populated areas or they are near where the habitation is quite high, we just cannot do it,” Duterte said.

In a briefing in Davao City before he left for Myanmar and Thailand for the final leg of his familiarization tour of the ASEAN region, Duterte stressed he wanted to avoid civilian casualties during military operations.

“That is why it takes us time to do it because we try to avoid hitting civilians. If there were no civilians, the mission could have been ended,” he said.

The Armed Forces of the Philippines has deployed thousands of troops in the Abu Sayyaf strongholds of Basilan and Sulu, yet despite air and ground offensives, the bandit group’s piracy and kidnappings continue unabated.

The bandits are entrenched in local communities, complicating operations by a military wary of incurring civilian casualties.

Duterte likened the communist New People’s Army rebels to the Abu Sayyaf.

“But just like the communists, every time that they are cornered, they mix with the people,” Duterte said.

“The people are their water. So is the saying ‘they are the fish in the water’ because once they merge with the civilian population… we’ll just have to stop operation,” he added.

“That is also one of the things pounded on the military and the police: do not go into an action where you kill civilians.”