DAVAO CITY – Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte calls to stop the war between the military and the New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP).
The conflict between the two has been ongoing for 46 years.
“How many more years do we need to end this conflict? It’s been going on for the last (46) years,” Duterte said.
“Do we still need another (46) years to kill each other?” he added.
Following the encounter of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) with suspected NPA members in Calinan District Wednesday, Duterte said that the decades-long conflict has to stop “because it is not good to kill each other.”
“Whether an NPA or a soldier, I always grieve for the life of the Filipino taken,” he said.
The encounter left AFP with four members killed and seven injured.