PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, February 19, urged Malaysia and Indonesia to "band together" with the Philippines in a bid to address piracy at sea and kidnapping of seafarers.

Duterte made the call during the 25th anniversary celebration of the Brunei Darussalam-Indonesia-Malaysia-Philippines East Association of Southeast Asian Growth Area (BIMP-EAGA) in Davao City.

The President asked for the cooperation of the leaders of Malaysia and Indonesia, as he noted that pirates have "no souls."

"I call upon the BIMP-EAGA. We are doing commerce. Our navies must be vigilant. We have to be one in our patrols. These pirates, they have no souls -- I assure you -- just like me. I am telling the military forces, finish them (pirates) off," Duterte said in his speech.

"Once again, Indonesia and Malaysia, we have to band together. The world is changing including the economy. It could either go bad or very bad or where it could go well. But we have to go to a bad level and I hope we can survive it," he added.

Duterte renewed the call, amid security concerns in the regional waters wherein piracy and kidnap-for-ransom activities continue to thrive.

He also vented frustrations over the lack of justice for victims of piracy, describing this as a "mirage actually floating in the seas."

"But let me be very clear to the heads of state. My orders to my navy is to blast them off the earth. If there are pirates in our territory or in the high seas, my orders are blast them to kingdom come," he said.

"Just the same, they are arrested, they go to prison, you do not have witnesses because the victims are - Once they are freed, they would not even wait for a minute to issue a statement to go home because they are scared. So justice seems to be an illusion, it’s a mirage actually floating in the seas," Duterte added. (SunStar Philippines)