Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte threatens air strikes against communist rebels

RODRIGO “The Punisher” Duterte has warned he is willing to launch deadly air strikes, as peace talks with communist rebels break down.

PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte has issued a warning that the military is ready to respond with air strikes and new offensives if communist rebels launch new attacks.

That news comes as both sides lifted separate ceasefires and Duterte announced he was scrapping peace talks with the guerillas.

Duterte called the rebels “terrorists,” as months of steady progress in talks brokered by Norway rapidly turned hostile after New People’s Army rebels killed six soldiers and kidnapped two others in fresh violence.

Philippine's President Rodrigo Duterte has been waging a brutal war against drug suspects. Picture: AFP

“It seems to me that these terrorists want another 50 years of war, of killing of Filipinos,” Duterte said.

“I don’t want a bloody thing, but if they choose to do it, fine.

“With my lifting of the ceasefire, they can begin their attacks and we are prepared and I will use the assets. We have so many planes now, we have jets, I will drop all (the bombs).” Duterte said some of the slain soldiers were killed like pigs and raked with gunfire.

Jose Felipe Mesias touches his son's casket after local police denied participation in his killing. Picture: Jes Aznar/Getty Images

The rebels have yet to react to Duterte’s moves.

Despite his tough talk, Duterte asked thousands of guerillas to abandon the nearly half a century of bloody rebellion in the countryside with an offer of land reform and housing.

“I’m offering you peace,” he said.

“You should just come down and I will look for money to place you in settlements and I will proceed with the land reform.” Duterte said that several rebel leaders who were temporarily freed to join the peace talks in Europe should immediately return to the Philippines and go back to prison, warning that he would cancel their passports and order them to be arrested.

Children hold pictures of their loved ones during a mass held for victims of the drug war in Manila, Philippines. Picture: Dondi Tawatao/Getty Images

The setback in the talks is the latest reality check for Duterte, whose crackdown on illegal drugs, which has killed thousands of drug suspects since he took office in June, has also hit a dilemma.

Duterte prohibited the 170,000-strong national police and the National Bureau of Investigation, another key law enforcement agency, from enforcing his campaign amid an extortion scandal that was sparked by the killing of a South Korean businessman by police officers involved in the anti-drug fight. Duterte has said he will enlist the military to support the crackdown, now in the hands of a small anti-narcotics agency.