Duterte to Davao bombers: I'll eat you alive

VIENTIANE, Laos – I will eat you alive.

This was the warning of President Duterte to those behind the bombing in Davao City last Friday, which left 15 people dead and at least 71 others wounded.

“You know, I can eat people. I can rip open your body. Give me vinegar and salt and I will eat you. That’s true. If you really anger me and I reach my limits, I can eat people,” Duterte told members of the Filipino community Monday night here.

“As I say it in Bisaya, walay sukod sa balos (no amount of compensation). Go stage bombings as you wish. When the time comes, I will eat you in front of other people. I will devour you and if I have to erase you, I’ll do it. Not even a single coconut (tree) will grow there,” he added.

Duterte suspects that the bombing in Davao City was a retaliation by the Abu Sayyaf bandits, who are being relentlessly tracked down by security forces. The Abu Sayyaf has owned up to the bombing and warned of more attacks if the military does not stop its offensives.

“We are being slapped almost everyday. They would hold hostage tourists and ask for money. If they fail to give money, the victims will be sent to another group, raise the ransom demand and kill the hostages,” the president said.

“As a (leader of a) country, a sovereign state, I cannot simply allow that.”

Duterte said he shares the grief of the families of the fatalities of the blast.

“But that will not stop us because I cannot go to them and say, ‘please stop and I am on bended knees.’ I carry the burden of a country, a sovereign state and at all costs, I must uphold the dignity and the integrity of our country,” he said.

Duterte said Davao City, where he served as mayor for more than two decades, is really peaceful except for occasional terrorist activity.

“There are no criminals, hold-up men, drug pushers. They are almost wiped out. It will just take a little time before I obliterate them,” he said.

Duterte vowed to punish the perpetrators of the bombing, which happened just three days before the president was scheduled to leave for Laos to attend the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit.

“They will pay. Time will come and I will crush them,” he said.

“I will get back at them.”