Esperon: Duterte issued shoot-to-kill order vs. armed communists

President Rodrigo Duterte has issued a shoot-to-kill order against armed communist rebels, National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon said Tuesday.

Esperon made the response when asked if the President’s March 5 call to kill all communists is a shoot-to-kill order.

“Tama ‘yan. ‘Pag nakita natin sila na may armas, ano pa nga ba ‘yun. Kung hindi mo babarilin agad, ikaw naman ang mababaril,” Esperon said during the Laging Handa briefing.

“In the name of peace, law, and order ay binitawan na nga ni Pangulo ang shoot-to-kill orders against armed CPP-NPA,” Esperon added.

CPP is the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing is the New People’s Army.

Esperon’s comments came two days after nine activists were killed on Sunday, March 7, during police operations in the Calabarzon Region. Their deaths came two days after the President called for the killing of all communists.

Presidential spokesperson Harry Roque earlier said the Justice Department will probe the deaths of nine activists, specifically if there was a necessity and proportionality on the operation that led to their deaths.

Police claimed that the activists were armed, which was denied by the relatives of those killed who witnessed the bloodshed. — RSJ, GMA News