MANILA, Philippines — After calling them “communist terrorists” and saying they were among the reasons why martial law should be extended in Mindanao, President Rodrigo Duterte again assailed members of the New People’s Army, claiming they were sexually abusing poor people in rural areas where they operate.
“I do not want to talk to the communists anymore. I have been receiving reports kayong mga komunista [you, communists], you’re roaming around everywhere and some of you, I have some reports from anywhere, you are into molesting or sexually abusing ‘yong mga tao sa bukid [people from farms],” said Duterte on Sunday, December 17, during the 7th LGBT-Davao’s yearend gathering at Azuela Cove’s The Tent.
Also, the President said he received reports that some NPA rebels made sexual advances on women by allegedly touching their delicate parts. He also accused NPA members of forcibly making the wives of other men their sex partners.
“Hinihipo ninyo ‘yong mga babae at ‘yong iba, ninanakaw ninyo ang asawa,” said Duterte.
The President then questioned the revolution being waged by communist rebels, saying he could not stomach the reports that he received about their alleged abuses.
“Is that the kind of revolution? We have been fighting for 50 years. I’m addressing myself to the NPAs. If you want to fight another 50 years, so be it. Hindi ko talaga ma — kalokohan na gano’n,” he said.
In his December 8 letter to Senate and House leaders, the President said that besides the ISIS-inspired local terror groups, the NPA, whom he tagged as “communist terrorists” along with their “coddlers, supporters, and financiers,” are also out to “seize political power through violent means and supplant the country’s democratic form of government with Communist rule.”
