President Rodrigo Roa Duterte delivers his speech after leading the distribution of Certificates of Land Ownership Award (CLOAs) to the Agrarian Reform Beneficiaries (ARBs) at the Lagao Gymnasium in General Santos City on June 13, 2019. (JOEY DALUMPINES / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO / MANILA BULLETIN)
The President said rebels should just surrender to authorities as he offered to give them a “small” condominium unit and livelihood assistance to jumpstart their lives.
“Whether you agree to it or not, you NPAs (New People’s Army), the communists, you are about to end,” Duterte said during the distribution of land ownership certificates to farmer beneficiaries in General Santos City Thursday.
“You don’t have guns, you don’t have bullets, you don’t even have food. All you have are sores and you are being bitten by leeches,” he said.
Duterte urged the communist rebels to come down from the mountains and lay down their arms instead, telling them that communist ideology is a lost cause. He said the rebels have been fighting for more than five decades but have not been able to successfully occupy a single barangay.
“To the communists, come down here. I’ll give you a small condo. The same condo that I allot for the military and police. But yours will be smaller but it’s a house that you can live in. It’s habitable so to speak,” he said.
He said the rebel returnees can also learn livelihood skills from the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA).
“I’ll give you a house. I’ll give you a job. I will send you to school for skills training,” he said.
The President also reminded the local rebels that there were no longer communist countries, citing that China has become a “controlled capitalist.”
He renewed his offer to send some rebel returnees to Hong Kong and mainland China to see their progress.
“China and Hong Kong look the same. They are very rich. Are they communist? No more. It’s a controlled capitalist. That’s it. It’s a controlled economy, market-driven,” he said.
“There are no communist countries anymore. But Philippines is letting itself be deceived,” he said.
He slammed the local communist insurgents for allegedly committing murder and extortion during their armed struggle against the government. He said these rebels were “worse” than thieves since they kill people who refuse to pay them.
“There are people who like to extort money. It doesn’t have to be a foreigner. And they won’t be able to develop the land because all they do is extort from you. And if you refuse to give it to them, they will kill you. You are worse than a holdupper to be honest,” he said.
The President recently asked the communist rebel group to agree to a ceasefire and stop extortion activities before any peace talks can resume. He said they should stop their atrocities if they were really sincere in reviving the peace negotiations.
Earlier, the President announced plans to create a new peace panel to possible talk peace with the communist rebel group. His decision came even after terminating the peace negotiations between the government and the rebel group over the atrocities committed against troops and civilians.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.