Duterte renews call for NPA to drop guns, discuss land distribution

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday urged the New People's Army (NPA) to drop their arms and instead cooperate with the government's land reform program, as he acknowledged that decades of war with the communists will never end if they are not given land.

In his speech at the Distribution of Certificate Of Land Ownership Award (CLOA) in Negros Occidental, Duterte said if China launches an attack on the country, the NPA would be the first to be destroyed.

"The mountains will be blown to pieces with just one missile. There will be no burials because if the moment you get hit, wala na. Where will we look for your body parts?"

"That is why you will never ever win. I have told you before that you will never win in anything. You will just keep on killing and terrorizing people. That is the only thing that you agree on," Duterte added.

The President reiterated his job to lead the country and maintain peace and order, and that his marching order was to "shoot to kill for those who are armed."

"Because if I don’t do that, it will take an even longer time for us to finish this. It would be better if you drop your guns and talk. Let’s talk about how we’re going to distribute the lands. Marami pa bang lupa ang gobyerno diyan? May lupa pa ban a pwede nating --- gobyerno, dito. Ha?" Duterte said.

Duterte made his speech as he vowed to hasten the distribution of state-owned lands to beneficiaries of Agrarian Reform Program, including the ones in the mountain areas.

Duterte said he would hasten the allocation of lands in the remaining three years of his term.

The President recalled that he cut ties with the New People's Army (NPA) because he disagreed with their ideals of waging war where innocent lives will be lost.

"That is the reason why I left. I didn’t want to kill. Even to this day, I don’t want to kill an NPA because I don’t want to kill my countrymen. Why don’t we just talk to each other instead?"

Duterte slammed the communists for turning Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) founder Jose Maria Sison into a "god."

"For fifty-three years you were fooled by just one person. Fifty-three years of killing. To this day, they haven’t even been able to successfully hold a single barangay. And when they arrive, they wreak havoc and fight over which land they want to occupy. I will not allow that to happen," Duterte said.

Duterte said he had to "let go" of government officials having ties with communists including former Agrarian Reform Secretary Rafael Mariano, former DSWD Secretary Judy Taguiwalo and former National Anti-Poverty Commission chairperson Liza Maza.

"The worst thing is they want to impose on government their own ideals. But that wasn’t our agreement, so I had to let them go," he said. — MDM, GMA News