AFP told: Don’t allow Maute to hide in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines - Security forces should make sure that clashes with the Islamic State-linked Maute group in Mindanao will not spill over to Luzon, where the seat of power is located and where it is much easier to hide, lawmakers said yesterday. 

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said it would help the military and police to tap intelligence information from the ground. 

“Community intelligence works through peoples’ vigilance and the immediate response of authorities. The government’s job is to feed the public with adequate and accurate information,” he said. 

“This way, Metro Manilans could recognize threat and immediately report such to the nearest barangay hall or police detachment,” Castelo, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Metro Manila development committee, said.

He said making the public aware of the identities of the Maute, Abu Sayyaf and IS leaders who led the bloody Marawi City siege could significantly reduce their chances of regrouping in Metro Manila to resume their operations.

Photos and other pertinent information about the terrorists should be displayed in barangay halls, transport terminals and service institutions like hospitals, Castelo said. 

His colleague Rep. Alfred Vargas, also of Quezon City, lauded the security forces’ swift action on the Marawi siege, as well as President Duterte’s earlier decision to cut short his trip to Russia in order to deal with the terrorist situation in Mindanao.

But as far as Surigao del Sur Rep. Johnny Pimentel, a member of the House committee on national defense and security, is concerned, having a protracted and extended battle with the Maute group would be “very dangerous.” He warned the military to nip problem in the bud before local terrorists get to “rouse” foreign reinforcements.  

Pimentel urged the Bureau of Immigration and the Philippine Coast Guard to be on the lookout for possible foreign-based IS backers who might be emboldened to go to Mindanao to aid local terrorists in Marawi.

 “These IS sympathizers, including those radicalized online, could come from everywhere – from as far as Europe or to as near as Indonesia. They may try to legally come in through our regular ports of entry, or illegally by way of Mindanao’s vast coastline,” he added.