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President Rodrigo Duterte said on Tuesday that he ordered the government security forces to go on a "full scale attack" against the communist New People's Army.

In a speech during the 2019 outstanding government workers awards rites in Malacañang, Duterte said the issue of talking to the communists is "almost nil to nothing" as he called the Communist Party of the Philippines-NPA-National Democratic Front as "ambitious."

"They want a government. They are only few with ideologue... they think that they are the deliverance given by God to make the Philippines a better country," he said.

"I have ordered the Armed Forces and the Police to go attack full-scale," he stressed.

Duterte said the communist rebels should be finished under his term.

"And looking at the political horizon there, whoever will be the (next) president, I'm so pessimistic," he said.

In an interview with reporters later, Duterte said the full scale attack is equivalent to "all-out war."

Asked the difference between the security forces' operation now and before, he said, "There will be no let up."

Duterte said if the battalions of soldiers going after the Maoist rebels are "bone-weary," they will be replaced by another battalion.

"And if possible, they fight up to the end, I can't accept surrender," he said.

Duterte said he ordered the full scale attack following the gruesome killing of four policemen allegedly by the NPA in Negros Oriental months ago.

In the same speech, Duterte admitted that he was "scared" of the ISIS amid the recent suicide bombing attack in Sulu province.

"This ISIS is something that I am really scared. My hand is sweating when I think --- no it’s a worldwide… Forget Abu Sayyaf, forget about the Maute. Our opponents are the terrorists, the ISIS-connected….this is a mass insanity that cannot be cured just as --- it’s just like an epidemic. It will pass and after that it simmers down then there’s a cycle again," he said.

He said his "greatest fear" is bombing, which could be initiated in other parts of Mindanao, such as Zamboanga and Davao. Celerina Monte/DMS