PEACE and order and progress for the nation are on President Rodrigo Duterte’s top wishes for Filipino this Christmas season.
“My beloved countrymen, as we remember the birth of our savior Jesus Christ, let us celebrate with genuine compassion and desire to foster hopes in our hearts. This Yuletide season, I wish for peace and order, progress for our country,” Duterte said in a message through state television RTVM.
“Greeting you all a very merry Christmas, my family, my fellow workers in government and let us all look forward for the coming of a new year with great happiness,” he added.
Duterte, 71, had earlier delivered a Christmas message to Filipinos, extending his message of peace even to Abu Sayyaf terrorists, communists and Moros.
“I’d like to greet everybody, the communists, Abu Sayyaf, all of them, in behalf sa taong Pilipino, I greet everybody a merry Christmas and a prosperous new year for all,” he said during a trip to a military headquarters in Zamboanga City to visit wounded soldiers last week.
“I’d like to greet everybody, to the Filipino people, the law-abiding and of course if they find it in their hearts, though this is not really something for the Moro but you know that this kind of events are closest to the hearts of Christians [that] we can have a peaceful Christmas.”
The President also called for a truce during the holidays and extended a dinner invitation to Abu Sayyaf terrorists who will pass by Davao City.