Mayor Sara Duterte called on tribal datus, businesses, and community leaders to cut off the lifeline for the New People’s Army.
Duterte chided the New People’s Army for attacking the soldiers four days ago in Barangay Malabog, Paquibato District. The troops were escorting several workers of the Department of Social Welfare and Development who were distributing money to the beneficiaries of the Social Amelioration Program.
There were two soldiers wounded in the incident.
She said the NPA is repeating the cycle of violence by making the poor continue to be poor and the rich remain to be rich as long as they pay the group.
“It must be a concerted effort across all classes in the population in the city that we must not support this group financially,” she said. “Despite the COVID-19 facing the world, the NPA continues to not care for the people at all.”
She said that the NPA does not care if people will die of hunger, if they have no jobs, or if they are poor. “They just want to sow chaos and kill people in our communities,” she said over Davao City Disaster Radio interview on Saturday.
The mayor said the NPA is even taking advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to intensify their attacks and harassment. They target soldiers who are not even there for a military operation but to help the government deliver relief goods to the far-flung communities.
“They are good in creating the culture of threat, violence and intimidation as a way for their business-like extortion activities to live,” she said.
