Philippine President, Rodrigo Duterte, said on Monday that he would recruit more soldiers in the fight against a rebel group.

Duterte cited the security threat the country is facing as the reason behind the military force expansion. The New People’s Army (NPA) rebels have reportedly launched a dozen attacks at government agencies in July.

He was tough on the rebels, warning “I said I am a bully to the enemies of the state. So if you don’t want me, to talk to me, I do not want to talk to you, and I do not want you. If you want to call off the talk, it will be welcomed. Let the war which you started 50 years ago continue for another 50 years. That is my suggestion.”

“So, a countermeasure would start to call for a mobilisation. I want the army added by about 20,000 fighting men. I have lost a considerable number of my soldiers in Marawi, then I will add about another 10 to 15 thousand soldiers, but I want them soft, and quite comfortable with the number now assigned in the prisons and in the environment of provinces and cities. I would need about 35,000 to 40,000 to meet the future threats coming our way from within and outside the country,” said Duterte in his second annual State-of-the-Nation Address before Congress.

Duterte’s report to the nation took place as war rages in Marawi City where government security forces battle with the remaining 80 heavily armed extremists allied with the Islamic State group that attacked the southern Philippine city on May 23.

The 63-day fighting has so far killed more than 600 people, including nearly 100 civilians, and displaced around 500,000 civilians, according to government data.
Government officials and diplomats attended the annual event, including former presidents Fidel Ramos, Joseph Estrada and Gloria Arroyo. Duterte’s predecessor, former President Benigno Aquino, did not attend.

The 72-year-old Philippine leader remains popular despite criticism hurled at him for waging a war on drugs that has left suspects dead and for charting a foreign policy independent of the United States, a treaty ally of the Philippines.