PHILIPPINE President Rodrigo Duterte says he has ordered his troops to bomb extremists who flee with their captives in a bid to stop a wave of kidnappings at sea, calling the loss of innocent lives in such an attack “collateral damage”.

Duterte has previously stated that he had told his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts their forces can blast away as they pursue militants who abduct sailors in waters where the three countries converge and bring their kidnap victims to the southern Philippines.

He said in an overnight speech that he has given the same orders to Filipino forces.

Duterte says he has instructed the navy and the coast guard that “if there are kidnappers and they’re trying to escape, bomb them all”.

“They say ‘hostages.’ Sorry, collateral damage,” he said in a speech to business people in Davao, his southern hometown.

Such an approach would enable the government to get even with the ransom-seeking militants, he argued.

“You can’t gain mileage for your wrongdoing; I will really have you blasted,” he said.

His advice to potential victims was to not allow themselves to be kidnapped.

Duterte’s remarks reflect the alarm and desperation of the Philippines, along with Malaysia and Indonesia, in halting a series of ransom kidnappings primarily by Abu Sayyaf militants and their allies along a busy waterway for regional trade.

Yesterday, ransom-seeking Abu Sayyaf gunmen freed a South Korean captain and his Filipino crewmen who were abducted three months ago from their cargo ship. The gunmen handed skipper Park Chul-hong and Glenn Alindajao over to Moro National Liberation Front rebels, who turned them over to Philippine officials in southern Jolo town in predominantly Muslim Sulu province.

The Moro rebels, who signed a 1996 peace deal with the government, have helped negotiate the release of several hostages of the smaller but more violent Abu Sayyaf, which is black-listed by the US as a terrorist organisation for kidnappings, beheadings and bombings.