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Duterte to punish rogue cops by sending them to violence-plagued south Philippines
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Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that corrupt police will be sent to a violence-racked stronghold of Islamist militants or they should quit, in a fierce dressing down of men from a force he had relied on to fight his war on drugs.
I will send you to Basilan, live there for 2 years. If you get out alive, you can return here
Duterte had been unwavering in his defence of the police in the face of international outrage over the death toll, but his faith in the force was shaken by the killing of a South Korean businessmen late last year by rogue officers.
Duterte late last month denounced the police as “corrupt to the core” and suspended their anti-drug operations, though vowing to forge ahead with the drug campaign.
On Tuesday, he spoke to ranks of 400 policemen lined up in the grounds of the presidential palace, all of them under investigation for various infractions, and condemned them as “foolish, idiots and sons of b*****s”. He even challenged them to a shoot-out.
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“I will send you to Basilan, live there for 2 years. If you get out alive, you can return here. If you die there, I will tell the police not to spend anything to bring you back here but to bury you there,” Duterte told them.
Basilan is a southern island stronghold of the notorious Islamic State-linked Abu Sayyaf militant group, who have developed a reputation for beheading their captives. Those who did not want to go to Basilan could quit, Duterte said, but he warned any who did to stay out of trouble.
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