Duterte takes full responsibility for Samar 'misencounter'

MANILA, Philippines — As commander-in-chief, President Duterte said last night he was taking full responsibility for the misencounter in Samar between the Philippine Army and Philippine National Police that killed six policemen.

“It’s timing. I’d like to thank God for making the coincidence. I came here to visit the wounded soldiers and policemen in a very unfortunate event,” he said in his speech at the Sangywa Festival of Lights.

“I gave (advice) to both the Filipino soldiers and the Filipino policemen. I’d like to tell you that the ultimate blame or fault is on me being the commander-in-chief… but I am on the top (commander)… there was a lot of tragedy to weave in the incident,” he said in a mix of English and Filipino.

Duterte went to the wake of the six slain policemen and visited those who were wounded. He conferred posthumous awards on the slain cops, namely Police Officers 1 Julie Escalo, Phil Jrey Mendigo, Rowel Reyes, Julius Suarez; Wyndell Noromor and Edwin Ebrado.

Duterte said he advised the military and the police to bury the hatchet caused by the misencounter, but the investigation will continue to determine what went wrong.

“Just forget it, it was not intentional. The Murphy’s Law operates as it is… if things will go wrong, it will go wrong,” Duterte said.

“So, I said, I am your commander, so I said, ‘it’s all my fault, but since you are my all my soldiers, let’s forget the hurts and allow the investigation to go on, let us see what develops in the future,” the Chief Executive added.