Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has threatened to eat alive the militants behind the abduction and beheadings of two Vietnamese sailors.
The remains of the two hostages, who were kidnapped along with four other crew members of a Vietnamese cargo ship in November last year, were recovered on Wednesday in the southern region of Mindanao by Philippine troops.
The military blamed the killings on the kidnap-for-ransom Abu Sayyaf group, which has a stronghold in the area and is known to behead its hostages unless ransom payments are made.
Photo: AFP / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO DIVISION
“I will eat your liver if you want me to. Give me salt and vinegar and I will eat it in front of you,” Duterte said in a speech to local officials on Wednesday. “I eat everything. I am not picky. I eat even what cannot be swallowed.”
Holding up a mobile phone with a photograph of the slain Vietnamese sailors, Duterte cursed the militants.
“Will we allow ourselves to be enslaved by these people?” he said. “Son of a whore.”
Duterte, 72, last year ordered a military offensive against the Abu Sayyaf and other militants in the southern Philippines.
Abu Sayyaf, originally a loose network of militants formed in the 1990s with seed money from Osama bin Laden’s al-Qaeda network, has splintered into factions, with some continuing to engage in banditry and kidnappings.
One faction has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group and joined militants battling security forces since late May in Marawi, the largely Catholic nation’s most important Muslim city.
The militants continue to occupy parts of the southern city, despite a US-backed military offensive there that has claimed more than 460 lives and displaced nearly 400,000 people.
Duterte often uses extreme language, particularly when talking about Muslim militants.
Last year, he said he would eat Abu Sayyaf militants alive in a bloodthirsty vow of revenge following a bombing in Davao, his southern home city, that claimed 15 lives.
Duterte said that when he visited Hanoi last year Vietnam raised concern about a series of high-seas kidnappings blamed on the Abu Sayyaf.
On Wednesday, the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the killing of the two sailors and called for heavy punishment.
One of the six crewmen was rescued last month, while three remain in captivity, according to the Philippine military.
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