PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte took aim at communist rebels and Islamic State extremists in his second State of the Nation Address Monday, saying the enemies of the state deserve to be “bullied” with the full might of the government.
“Times have changed because God placed me here. They call me a bully. You sons of whores, I’m really a bully, especially to the enemies of the state,” the President said in Filipino, in an expletive-laced speech that ran for more than two hours.
Duterte recently called off peace talks with the communist rebels, after New People’s Army rebels ambushed a military convoy that included his security group.
The President went off script and peppered his speech with expletives as he took potshots at the communist movement and his former professor, Jose Maria Sison, the founding chairman of the Communist Party of the Philippines, who is in self-exile in the Netherlands.
He also said the peace talks were becoming expensive for Norway, which has agreed to broker the negotiations.
“It’s expensive because those crazies keep going back and forth like tourists,” he said, referring to the communist negotiators. “They don’t say anything, then when they come here, they say they want this, and want that. Lulu mo,” he said, using a Visayan phrase that means to go masturbate.
He also slammed the communist New People’s Army for attcking members of his security detail in Arakan, North Cotabato.
“Even my policemen, you ambush them every day. And you even want to kill me, because that was my convoy you fired on with a machine gun,” he said, while acknowledging that he was far away from the scene of the ambush.
In an unprecedented move, Duterte confronted leftist protesters near the Batasang Pambansa after his Sona, and said they could talk peace only if both sides respected the other.
He also dared anyone with a gun to shoot him there and then.
“Respect? You’d ambush me. We should all suffer. Who has a gun? Fire away. Go ahead, I’ll catch it and send it back to you crazies,” he said in Filipino.
Toward the end of his speech to the protesters, he asked for more time for his administration to continue with the reforms, noting that he had accepted leftists into his Cabinet.
Then he cursed again at the NPA ambush of his convoy. “You want to kill even me. If I die, who will you talk peace with? My spirit?” he said in Filipino.
Over the weekend, Duterte said he will no longer talk peace with the communists and ordered the military to train its guns on the New People’s Army after it has retaken Marawi City from Islamist terrorists.
Duterte also said that the NDF was no longer interested in pursuing talks amid its continued criticism of some of his policies and the NPA’s relentless attacks on state troops. He ordered the arrest of all NDF consultants who were given temporary freedom to hold talks with the government.
The Office of the Solicitor General earlier asked the Supreme Court and several regional trial courts handling the cases against the communist leaders to recall the bail given them, after backchannel talks were called off Wednesday amid the renewed attacks by communist rebels, including one against members of Duterte’s security detail.
Duterte also accused communists of abuses when a leftist group occupied housing units intended for soldiers.
“The left is too much. You build a house and they will steal it,” he said in Filipino. “And you try to intimidate me by saying you will occupy the streets? I’ll give you six months there. Don’t you leave,” he said.
Duterte was referring to an urban poor group, Kadamay, that had forcibly occupied thousands of housing units that were intended for soldiers and policemen.
In the same speech, Duterte reiterated that the government is determined to finish off jihadist forces lurking in Mindanao, where martial law has been extended to the end of the year.
“I declared martial law in Mindanao because I believed that that was the fastest way to quell the rebellion at the least cost of lives and properties,” Duterte said. “At the same time, the government would be adequately equipped with the constitutional tool not only to prevent the escape of rebels who can easily mingle and pretend to be civilian evacuees only to re-group in another place to fight another day, but also to prevent them from spreading their gospel of hate and violence in the rest of Mindanao.”
“To decisively address insurgency and terrorism, we are working doubly hard towards [achieving] a stronger and more credible national defense system for the country. We continue to strengthen the defense capability of the AFP as a deterrence against terrorists, lawless elements, and other threats,” he added.
He also reiterated his support for and commitment to the military and for those who are on the ground.
“The people of Marawi need help. Caught in the crossfire between government troops and Muslim extremists, they have been through hell and we need to help them rise and move forward,” he said.
“If we cannot provide for the poor and the needy who are many, then we will not be able to keep from harm the rich who are few,” he added.
At a press conference after his SONA, Duterte rejected the possibility of putting the entire nation under martial law, saying this would make him look stupid.
Duterte also acknowledged there was a failure of intelligence in Marawi City, which was overrun by Islamic State-inspired terrorists.
“There was a failure of intelligence. There were tunnels. Maute was stocking explosives. There was a mistake in the evaluation or assessment,” Duterte said.
