6 Sep 2016: When they march on the enemy they do not stop until they subdue them, kill them or get killed. They proved this simple motto some two hundred years ago when a discerning British colony in India spotted their fighting skills and gallantry. Ever since, they have fought and won many battles for the British Crown earning them reputation as the unstoppable warriors from the foothills of the Himalayas.

Now, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is eyeing on the same Nepalese legends known to the world as “Gurkhas”. Mr Duterte says he wants them to purge his country of what he calls “germs”, the feared Abu Sayyaf terrorist group.

News of his wish to recruit Gurkhas is based on the testimony of his Agriculture Secretary Emmanuel Piñol who told local media that he was one of the attendees of a closed-door cabinet meeting held last Saturday night. President Duterte met with his security top brass only hours after an improvised explosive made from mortar rounds killed over a dozen people and injured dozens more in Davao City, prompting him to declare “a state of lawlessness”. Abu Sayyaf group has already claimed responsibility for the attack, report confirm.

“If I have to hire the Gurkhas to help us fight the Abu Sayyaf, I am willing to do it,” the president was quoted as saying by a Philippine website, “These people are like germs which must be eliminated.”

Thousands of Gurkhas serve in the British Army with many in active duty in war-torn countries like Afghanistan. Tales of their fortitude are many. To mention a recent one, a Gurkha named Dipprasad Pun single-handedly defeated more than 30 Taliban fighters in 2010. He is said to have fired “more than 400 rounds, launched 17 grenades and detonated a mine to thwart the Taliban assault on his checkpoint near Babaji in Helmand Province”.

He later told media that he did not have a choice apart from killing as many Talibans as he could, “‘I had so many of them around me that I thought I was definitely going to die so I thought I’d kill as many of them as I could before they killed me.” The Queen awarded him the Conspicuous Gallantry Cross for his action.

It remains to be seen if the words of the Philippine President were uttered in a feat of rage following the bomb blast in Davao City or he is actually serious about approaching the Nepalese government to recruit the fearsome Gurkhas. For now, he is having to deal with the aftermath of his recent tirade during which he called President Obama “a son of a whore”. Mr Obama has already cancelled his meeting with Mr Duterte which was scheduled on the sidelines of a regional meeting in Laos. Added to this swear saga is his human rights record as over 2400 people have been killed since he launched his ruthless campaign against drug dealers and users. What concerns human rights watchers from around the world is the fact that these “extrajudicial killings” occurred in just little over two months.