PHL to receive some 5K firearms from ‘friendly country’ — Duterte
By Arjay L. Balinbin
SOME 5,000 new firearms from a “friendly country” will be imported to the Philippines in the next few days, President Rodrigo R. Duterte announced on Monday, Feb. 26.
“I am not at liberty to divulge it. But in the next few days, we will have about 5,000 more, a shipment coming from a friendly country,” Mr. Duterte said during the inauguration of the ARMSCOR Shooting Center, Incorporated (ASCI) in Davao City.
He added: “We will survive and we will win these pocket wars, and we will be a great nation someday.”
The President also pointed said he is considering the arming of civilians and reservists “if things get worse.”
“So I am not ready to make the order… I’m addressing myself to the civilians, [you may use] shotguns [or] .22 caliber [pistols]….If things get worse, I will allow the mobilization and maybe the purchase of [firearms for] the ROTC and those guys who have had military training. I will allow you to use high-caliber firearms.”
Mr. Duterte said his administration targets to eliminate terrorist elements in the country, notably the New People’s Army (NPA) and the ISIS group.
“These terrorists, including the ISIS and the NPA…the ISIS is really the ISIS. I do not want to expand the definition any longer because all the rebellious factions in the Moro land area are all affiliated with the ISIS,” he said.
“At the end of the day, they would group. I would not want to speculate about the MILF [Moro Islamic Liberation Front] and the MNLF [Moro National Liberation Front] but there is really a problem in the horizon, the darkening clouds of terrorism. So we will deal with them the same way.”
The President likewise stressed that all rebel groups in Mindanao will be treated as terrorists. “The way we treat the terrorists in the southern part, most of them, we will treat them the same way… I do not believe in the ideology anymore, because it is not really one which is good…”
ICC CAN’T END THE DRUG WAR
As for his war on drugs, the President emphasized that he only wants to build a strong nation for future generations. “So we might come up with a strong nation for our children and our grandchildren who are in front of us now.”
According to Mr. Duterte, “with or without the ICC [International Criminal Court]” currently conducting a preliminary examination into the “crimes against humanity” charges against him, his war against illegal drugs “will proceed,” and will “last until the last day of [his] term.”
“Let us end this. I have more than three years [left]; and, maybe at the end of my term, we would…not really get rid of everything because that’s impossible, but bring it to the barest minimum with the least casualty of people getting crazy,” the President said.
