Duterte to Indonesia, Malaysia: ‘Let’s bond together’ in fight vs piracy

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday urged Indonesia and Malaysia to join forces with the Philippines in combating crime on the high seas, amid the continued kidnappings by Abu Sayyaf bandits.

The Abu Sayyaf, a kidnap-for-ransom network that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist group, has been kidnapping foreigners and locals for decades and holding them for ransom on its remote island strongholds in Mindanao.

In his speech during the during the 9th founding anniversary celebration of Mindanao Development Authority and the 25th anniversary of the Brunei Daussalam- Indonesia- Malaysia- Philippine East Asean Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) in  Davao City, Duterte stressed the need to patrol a sea lane where commercial vessels could pass with protection from the three nations’ navies.

“I call upon the BIMP-EAGA. We are doing commerce. Our navies must be vigilant. We have to be one in our patrols,” the President said.

“Indonesia and Malaysia, we have to bond together. The world is changing, including the economy. It could either go bad or very bad or where it could go well. But we will have to look into a bad level and I hope we can survive it,” he said.

The President then reiterated his order to the Philippine Navy “to blast them (pirates) off the earth.”

“If there are pirates in our territory or in the high seas, my orders are blast them to kingdom come. Just the same, they are arrested, they go to prison, you do not have witnesses because the victims are… Once they are freed, they would not even wait for a minute to issue a statement to go home because they are scared,” Duterte said.

“So justice seems to be an illusion, it’s a mirage actually floating in the seas. So these pirates, they have no souls, I assure you just like me. I am telling the military forces, finish them off,” he added.