Controversial Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered his security forces to bomb kidnap-for-ransom groups operating in the country's southern islands, even if hostages are killed.
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"Even if they are kidnappers and they are trying to escape, blow them up," Mr Duterte told businessmen in his home city of Davao.
Referring to hostages, he said "sorry, collateral damage".
Mr Duterte said his hardline policy would make kidnap gangs such as the brutal Islamist group Abu Sayyaf think twice about taking hostages.
The group has kidnapped scores of foreigners and Filipinos over more than a decade, sometimes beheading victims if ransoms are not paid.
Australian adventurer Warren Rodwell was held by Abu Sayyaf for 472 days after being taken at gunpoint from his home in the southern Philippines in 2011.
He spent 472 days in captivity before his family paid a $100,000 ransom.
Mr Duterte has been widely condemned outside his country, including by the United Nations, for his crackdown on drugs that has left more than 6200 people dead.
Last week he told more than 1000 municipal mayors he summoned to the presidential palace that he will kill those among them involved in drugs.
And in his latest comments on Saturday night he said he now plans to summon provincial governors and tell them the same thing.
When he took office in late June, Mr Duterte ordered police to shoot on sight drugs suspects who fail to surrender. Since then police have killed more than 2200 Filipinos during operations.
More than 4050 others have been killed in vigilante-style killings. Not one person has been charged over the deaths.
In his latest comments at the weekend, Mr Duterte, the 72-year-old former mayor of Davao, also said he would not hesitate to declare martial law.
"I will tell you now, if I have to declare martial law, I will declare it … to preserve my nation, period," he said.
"I don't care about the Supreme Court … the right to preserve one's life and my nation transcends everything else … nobody can stop me."
Human rights groups have expressed concern that Mr Duterte, who often makes expletive-laden speeches and revels in his nickname "The Punisher", wants to rule the country in the style of late dictator Ferdinand Marcos, who was forced to flee the country after a popular uprising in 1986.
Under the Philippines' 1987 constitution, a president has the power to implement martial law at times of invasion, insurrection or rebellion, but after 60 days he or she must then seek approval of an extension from parliament.
