Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte Offers Bounty For Killing Rebels

Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte reportedly put a bounty over the heads of communist rebel forces to save anti-insurgency costs. Human Rights groups and indigenous activists accused the president of inciting violence by announcing a bounty of $384 on every communist rebel killed, Al-Jazeera reported.

“You kill an NPA today and I’ll pay you 25,000” pesos, Duterte said in a speech Wednesday at an airbase in central Cebu city, referring to New People’s Army guerrillas.

Last week, Duterte said he would train indigenous people to become fighters and pay them 20,000 pesos to kill communist rebels who according to him were easier targets than birds since they have bigger heads.

“If you work really hard to crawl across the forest, you’ll surely be able to shoot even just one. If you can shoot a bird above you, then how much more an NPA whose head is so big?” Duterte said.

To cut costs of the military effort against communist rebel forces, the president, whose time in office has been marred by violence, asked the people to take up arms against the communist rebels.

“I was computing that if this drags on for four years . . . it’ll be very expensive because it’s war. If I’ll just pay 25,000 (pesos) for a life, I can save about 47 percent,” he said to laughter from the crowd.

The president made the bounty offer after two Indigenous community leaders were killed by rebel forces who accused the leaders of land grabbing and extortion.

This approach that encourages the killing rather than the capture of rebels was condemned by various Human Rights activists Thursday.

The Communist Party of Philippines has direct leadership over the NPA which serves as its armed right wing. They have been fighting a guerrilla war government of Philippines since the 1960’s in efforts to overthrow the Government who they believe are deep in the trudges of Corruption.

Duterte, infamous for his ruthless tactics to fight crime, was accused of committing crimes against humanity when he declared a war on drugs and issued a shoot to kill order.

According to a Human Rights Watch report published in January 2018, since Duterte took office more than 12,000 people have been killed.

Duterte's office have disputed the numbers saying only over 3,000 people were killed during police operations.

The offer of bounty widely regarded as abhorrent, comes days after he suggested killing female members of the New People’s Army by shooting them in their genitals to render them useless.

In a statement to Al-Jazeera, Carlos H. Conde of Human Rights Watch said: "Duterte's pronouncements normalize the idea that government security forces can do as they wish to defeat their enemies - including committing summary executions.”

Many indigenous people asked to kill the insurgents condemned the idea, saying killing for money doesn’t define their culture.

The Alternative Learning Center for Agricultural and Livelihood Development (ALCADEV), an indigenous group, in a social media post said: “To even ask us to kill, as if killing is the way to peace in our communities, shows ignorance of our plight and our struggle."

"The underlying principle of our struggle to defend the land of our ancestors can never be bought," it added.

Duterte is currently under investigation by the International Criminal Court for his crimes against humanity.