Duterte asks youth not to fall for communist ideology

President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday asked the youth not to embrace communist ideology.

Duterte issued the appeal as he slammed “terrorists trying to destroy our way of life.”

“Kayong mga bata, huwag kayong magpadala diyan sa mga ideolohiya na barat. Dumaan na kami diyan. I was one of those,” he said in his speech at the closing ceremony of the 1st Presidential Silent Drill Competition in Manila.

“Pero later on, I realized that nothing else would be good except to have law and order and one government," added Duterte, who was a student of Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison in the late 1960s.

Duterte’s comments came after he told the military on Tuesday to put an end to the Filipinos’ problem by crushing criminal syndicates and terror groups including the New People’s Army, the CPP's armed wing.

He said the government was fighting for the survival of the nation and that the public should support the soldiers.

Despite the President’s latest pronouncements, Palace spokesperson Salvador Panelo said on Thursday that Duterte is still interested in talking peace with the communist rebels. — MDM, GMA News