Duterte on Cullamat daughter: Woman in clash bound to die

President Rodrigo Duterte warned Lumads who took up arms against the government alongside the Communist Party of the Philippines and the New People's Army that they stood to be wiped out by the military.

Duterte made the remark a day after Jevilyn Cullamat, a lumad and a daughter of Bayan Muna Representative Eufemia Cuillamat, was killed in an encounter with the military in Mindanao.

She was a member of the NPA.

"If this thing goes on, the Lumads yung native na Pilipino talaga will become an extinct tribe, pag hindi kayo huminto dyan, lumayas, forever kayong wanted," Duterte said.

"Hindi ka na makababa at kung ma-timing-an ka, sabi nga ni Parlade sa Armed Forces, delikado kayo, mamatay kayo, sama-sama kayo dyan," he added.

The President thus urged Lumads who had joined the NPA to give up and return to the their homes, especially since communist insurgents were just making fools of them.

"Kita nyo yung kay Cullamat, anak nya mismo, babae pa, sigurado patay yan, babae ilaban mo sa sundalo, patay sigurado," Duterte said.

According to the Philippine military, Jevilyn Cullamat was killed in a 45-minute gunbattle in Barangay San Isidro in Marihatag, Surigao Del Sur.

She allegedly served as a medic in the New People's Army, and supposedly belonged to the Sandatahang Yuniy Pampropaganda Platoon of the Guerilla Front 19, Northeastern Regional Committee (NEMRC).

Representative Cullamat meanwhile said she was not surprised that her daughter had joined the NPA as she had seen and experienced the “abuses” of the Armed Forces of the Philippines. — Ma. Angelica Garcia/NB, GMA News