Duterte to Abu Sayyaf: Let's talk peace
MANILA, Philippines — President Rodrigo Duterte on Friday said he is open to a dialogue with the Abu Sayyaf terrorist group, which is notorious for bombings, beheadings, extortions and kidnap-for-ransom activities in the insurgency-plagued region of Mindanao.
In a speech during his visit to fire victims in Jolo, Sulu, Duterte extended an olive branch to Abu Sayyaf, saying he’s willing to listen to them to end extremism in the Philippines’ volatile south. The president earlier rejected any peace talks with terrorists.
“Abu Sayyaf, let’s talk. What are we going to do? Kill each other? You can kill me anywhere but what will you gain?” Duterte said in Filipino.
“We’re not Arabs. Let’s not follow them. We are Malays,” he added.
The Abu Sayyaf, whose members have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in the Middle East, is mostly engaged in banditry and piracy.
Duterte’s offer to Abu Sayyaf came after he signed into law the much-awaited Bangsamoro Organic Law, a product of a rocky 20-year peace process with Muslim separatists in a bid to end rebellion in the resource-rich Mindanao that has stunted the region's economic growth.
The approval of the BOL came following a difficult time for the Philippines after the principal Islamic city of Marawi was stormed by heavily-armed militants who are loyal to the Islamic State.
Mindanao has been placed under martial law until the end of this year as a result of the five-month Marawi siege, which eerily brings to mind the bombed-out cities of Raqqa or Mosul in the Middle East.
Duterte has repeatedly said that the government must correct the historical injustices done to the Moros in Mindanao that he stressed predate the colonization of the Philippines by Spain.
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