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By Prince Golez, Manila Reporter
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Thursday, March 2, 2017
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President Rodrigo Duterte (leftmost) witnesses the emotional reunion of eight-year-old Rexon Romoc and his mother at the Malacañang Palace on Tuesday. Rexon Romoc was abducted by members of the Abu Sayyaf Group on Aug. 5, 2016 and was released on Feb. 27. Also in the photo are Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza (2nd from left) and special assistant to the president Christopher Lawrence Go (3rd from left).
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MANILA – President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday expressed his sincerest apologizes to Germany after their citizen was beheaded by terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.
“I am very sorry that the hostage, a national of your country, has been beheaded, I sympathize with the family, I commiserate with the German people,” Duterte said in an interview in the Malacañang.
“We really tried our best. The military operation has been going on for some time. We have failed, that has to be admitted. There’s nothing wrong in admitting failure,” Duterte added.
Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Jesus Dureza voiced similar grief over the beheading of German national Juerfen Gustav Kantner, who had been kidnapped by members of the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) in November last year.
Seventy-year-old Kantner was killed after the failure to pay P30-million ransom to his captors for his release.
“We strongly condemn the barbaric beheading,” said Dureza as he condoled with the family, friends, and loved ones of the kidnap victim.
Kantner and his wife Sabine Merz, 56, were sailing from Palawan to Sabah when they were held hostage.
Merz was reportedly shot and instantly killed after she tried to resist the terror group Abu Sayyaf.
According to the presidential peace adviser, the military exhausted all efforts to save Kantner’s life.
“We all tried our best. But to no avail. Terrorism has no place in a country like ours and we as a people must confront violent extremism every time it rears its ugly head,” Dureza said.
“Another precious life had been needlessly lost. There must be a stop to this killing of the innocent and the helpless,” he added.
In 2008, the German couple was also abducted and held hostage by Somali pirates for nearly two months.
They were released after ransom payment./PN
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