MANILA, Philippines — Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte did not like that a United Nations general called the Filipino peacekeepers who escaped from Syrian rebels “cowards.”
In his weekly television program aired Sunday, Duterte said that United Nations Disengagement Observer Force overall chief Lieutenant General Iqbal Singha should be shot in the head due to his “offensive remark.”
“I am offended that the UN general said that our Filipino soldiers are cowards,” Duterte said in Cebuano.
“If you see the UN general, shoot him in the head. Tell them it’s Mayor Duterte’s request,” he added.
In an interview with India Today on Thursday, the Indian general said that the escape of the Filipino soldiers was “unprofessional” and that it endangered the lives of Fijian peacekeepers who were captured by the Syrian rebels.
“The higher UN echelon as well as the Indian Army agrees with me that the decision was correct. It is an act of cowardice to desert posts especially when a delicate ceasefire was in place,” Singha said.
Meanwhile, the Armed Forces of the Philippines called the act of the Filipino peacekeepers as the “greatest escape.”
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