Duterte renews warning to Reds, says gov't to deal with them in due time
President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated on Monday that the government forces would deal with communist rebels in due time.
Duterte repeated this warning, citing that "over 12 incidents" involving the New People's Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines-National Democratic Front, have been occurring in the countryside.
He said battles have been ongoing and "the ones responsible are the NPA.
"We will deal with them in due time," Duterte said in a speech in Marawi City where he led the inauguration of the Bahay Pag-asa for the displaced residents. This was Duterte's sixth visit to the war-torn city.
In a press briefing, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella hit the rebels for the violence they have been perpetrating in some parts of the country.
"The government will undertake appropriate steps to deal decisively with these forces that seem to have lost their sense of nation-building," he said.
Among the fresh attacks allegedly perpetrated by the NPA rebels were those in the provinces of Sarangani, South Cotabato, Surigao del Sur, Palawan and Masbate.
He said the leftist rebels disarmed officials were involved in the counter-insurgency program in Sarangani and South Cotabato. They allegedly abducted a tribe leader and a paramilitary member in Surigao del Sur; ambushed a military convoy in Palawan; and killed of a policeman in Masbate.
Abella said the NPA attacks fuel the "public's doubt about the talks with the group."
Duterte has terminated the peace talks with the rebels in July due to their series of attacks to government forces and private companies. Celerina Monte/DMS
