Duterte orders security forces to shoot armed Reds

November 29, 2017

President Rodrigo Duterte ordered on Wednesday government forces to shoot communist rebels who are armed.

In a speech in Sual, Pangasinan, Duterte hit the New People's Army for "almost everyday without fail" burning equipment of business interests, whether local or foreign, if they refuse to pay extortion money.

"So what will be my orders to the (government forces)? Shoot them. They will kill you anyway. So if there is an armed NPA there or terrorists, if he’s holding any firearms, shoot. And tell any --- I will answer for you, you just shut up," he said.

"Do not answer if that issue of human rights, you say, 'Go to Duterte. It is and was his order'," he added.

Militant groups have been complaining about the recent killings of their members after Duterte terminated the peace talks with the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA- National Democratic Front.

Duterte said Maoist rebels "are destroying my country, you expect me to pat you in the back and say, 'go slow'?”

He told the state forces to be cautious as the leftist rebels were just waiting at the roadside.

"So you better be prepared," he said, adding that if a soldier or a policeman feels that somebody is following him, he should be ready with his gun.

But if it happens that the soldier or police shoots the wrong person, Duterte said just let him know and he would fix it.

"Those are what you would call in the law mistaken identity or mistaken in fact, which is really an exempt --- exempting circumstance. In good faith you believe that you’re being followed by a killer and by your standards as a police, you really believe in good faith that the guy there is going to slaughter you and then you shoot first...," he explained.

Duterte has been criticized here and abroad due to alleged extrajudicial killings of drug suspects in the wake of his drug war. CelerinaMonte/DMS