Gov’t vows to stop ISIS recruitment in Phl

MANILA, Philippines - The government yesterday vowed to block the recruitment of Filipinos to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) as the country placed ninth among countries affected by terrorism in the Global Peace Index 2014.

“We have been coordinating and cooperating with our neighbors just to make sure that the Philippines will remain free from any ISIS recruitment,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said in a press briefing.

The Philippines got the worst rank among Southeast Asian countries covered by the study, namely Thailand (10th), Indonesia (31st), Myanmar (35th), Malaysia (48th), Cambodia (98th), Laos (113th) and Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam (tied at 124th).

According to the report, terrorism activities in the Philippines have doubled in 2013, the Global Terrorism Index Report for 2014 showed, putting the country at 9th most at risk of becoming less peaceful.

Valte said they were trying to verify the incidents that occurred since 2011 from law enforcement agencies and compare the data with what the GTI used.

“But certainly, I think everyone is unified in the goal that we want to lessen these incidents,” she said. “You’ve seen also the President talk about ISIS.”

According to Valte, the government will continue to push for peace and development in Mindanao to ensure that the people there will not be enticed to join insurgents or terrorists.

“You have seen the administration’s resolve in trying to reach a just and lasting peace for our brothers and sisters in Mindanao. And perhaps to us, we will remain undeterred in our efforts to continue to push for that,” Valte said.

Asked about the cases involving the communist New People’s Army (NPA), Valte said operations were ongoing against their violent attacks.

“These are the things that we’d like to look at. But certainly, at the end of the day, your goal really is to lessen these incidents because you are looking at the safety also of your people,” she said.

Valte added that in the case of the communist rebels, there were continued efforts to try to bring parties back to the table.

As regards ISIS, Valte reiterated the government was still verifying whether a Filipino was indeed involved in the beheading of some Syrians in the most recent video uploaded on the Internet.

“The military is endeavoring to check the veracity of that particular video, but so far, we still do not have any confirmation of the nationality of that person,” Valte said.

“A lot of us in Asia share the same characteristics and I would not be so bold as to say that he is a Filipino,” she said.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang said the military has yet to establish the nationality of the militant earlier identified in various reports as a Filipino fighter and later as Indonesian.

“We did not say that he is an Indonesian nor is he a Filipino. We are still in the process of conducting our own verification,” Catapang said.

The features of the ISIS jihadist have a semblance to Muslim Filipino militants, particularly the notorious Abu Sayyaf, whose members are mostly in their early teens and early 20s.

“If he looks like a Filipino and he talks in Filipino, then he could be a Filipino. But the thing is we haven’t seen him in person,” Catapang said.

He also belied reports the military has already obtained the identity of a Muslim fighter in Syria from their Indonesian counterparts.

An online report, citing military sources, said the ISIS fighter shown in the video only looks Filipino but is in fact Indonesian. Reports that the ISIS militant shown in the video is a Filipino gained credence due to the open declaration of support of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), the Abu Sayyaf and the Khalifa Islamiyah Mindanao (KIM), another emerging homegrown terrorist group in Mindanao, to ISIS.

Center of Intelligence and National Security Studies (CINSS) chairman Romel Banlaoi warned that a group of 200 Filipinos have left Mindanao to join their Muslim brothers fighting for the establishment of a caliphate state out of Syria and Iraq. – With Jaime Laude, Alexis Romero