(Eagle News) — President Rodrigo Duterte said he was set to visit Marawi to check the situation there.
“I cannot just sit on my a** sa opisina ko. Hirap ang tao doon,” Duterte said in groundbreaking rites of the Presidential Security Group Hospital in Malacanang Park.
In his speech, the President said he “really wallow(s) in sorrow” as he was the one who gave the orders for government troops to go to Marawi and fight the local terrorists, who have pledged allegiance to the international terrorist group Islamic State.
He said this was “the moral burden” he carried “all day and all night.”
In his speech, the President also did not mince words at terrorists in general, who he said were not covered by the Geneva Convention.
The Geneva Convention regulates the conduct of armed conflict, in a bid to protect civilians who do not take part in the hostilities.
“(Terrorists) are just plain bandits, gangsters, and what they really want is just to kill,” he said.
He said if the terrorists wanted to destroy, “we will destroy you.”
“We can’t be just sitting on our a** and looking at our countrymen being massacred, be it Moro or Christian..And if we allow the conflagration to spill (over), that’s the danger,” he said.
He said he actually anticipated this possibility.
As such, he declared martial law across Mindanao.
“Because I cannot do it at the last minute..How about (the possibility of) escape–(Isnilon) Hapsilon is said to be somewhere–and he..burns a city?” the President said, referring to the Abu Sayyaf leader who claims to be the emir of ISIS in Southeast Asia.
“As long as there is no indication of surrender, or raising of the hands, huwag niyo na buhayin iyan because they will fight another day. My order is if you destroy my country, I will destroy you, be it drugs or terrorism,” he added.
