Duterte on cops, Army misencounter: No one wants it

June 26, 2018

President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday nobody wanted the "misencounter" between the military and police to happen.

Duterte, in a speech in Zamboanga del Sur, said he will go to Samar where the misencounter occurred on Monday, resulting in the death of six police officers and wounding of nine others.

"Nobody wants it. Actually, what happens there is the Murphy's Law. If anything can go wrong, it will go wrong, just like the misencounter. So I want to go there," he said.

Duerte said he wants the Army to go with him to Samar.

"It was not intentional. Just the same, we have to show the camaraderie," he added.

He did not mention when he will go to Samar.

According to the Department of Interior and Local Government, elements of the Philippine Army's 87th Infantry Battalion had a misencounter with members of the 805th Mobile Company of the Regional Mobile Force Battalion 8 as both groups were conducting simultaneous combat operations in Sta. Rita and Villareal towns.

DILG Officer-in-Charge Secretary Eduardo Año has ordered an investigation. Celerina Monte/DMS