They began it, we will end it

The Philippines is 8,538 km from Syria. There was a time when I would not comment about the civil war in a country so far away in this column. We have enough troubles of our own or so I thought. But both the Philippines and Syria are now besieged by a group calling itself ISIS, Muslim rebels who want to establish a caliphate worldwide.

There are more than a thousand Filipino workers in Syria who want to come home. They work as resident domestics or as nurses. 

Raul Hernandez, the DFA spokesman, said the Philippine Embassy was “doing everything to implement the government’s mandatory repatriation program, which calls for the immediate evacuation of Philippine nationals in Syria due to the worsening security situation in many parts of that country.”

So far, the DFA has repatriated a total of 1,734 Philippine nationals from Syria.

But for Filipinos escaping the war is paradoxical. The ISIS war is now also in the Philippines. So far the fighting has been limited to Marawi City in Mindanao but there are comparable events which show that what happened in Syria is happening now in Mindanao. This is disturbing. According to reports like-minded foreign forces have joined the ISIS war. The fear is that ISIS, with the aid of their foreign supporters, may expand their war to other parts of the country.

The war in Syria began six years ago between the Assad government and the opposition. It was local politics. But in time it became a full-scale civil war that has killed more than 300,000 people. It has devastated the country with global powers and neighbors taking sides.

Opposition supporters began to take up arms, first to defend themselves and later to expel security forces from their local areas. Mr Assad vowed to crush “foreign-backed terrorism” and restore state control.

If the war has lasted so long it is because it has become more than between those for or against Mr Assad. It has become a war with the intervention of regional and world powers, including Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and the United States. As one report said it has “ turned Syria into a proxy battleground.”

The northern Syrian city of Raqqa is the headquarters of the jihadist group Islamic State (IS). Jihadist groups have also seized on the divisions, and their rise has added a further dimension to the war. Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an alliance formed by what was once the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Nusra Front, controls large parts of the north-western province of Idlib.

Meanwhile, so-called Islamic State (IS), which controls large swathes of northern and eastern Syria, is battling government forces, rebel brigades and Kurdish militias, as well as facing air strikes by Russia and a US-led multinational coalition.

Russia is helping Assad to “stabilise” the government. 

Putin ordered some of Russia’s forces to withdraw after turning the tide of the war for Syria.

However, intense Russian air and missile strikes went on to play a major role in the government’s siege of rebel-held eastern Aleppo, which fell in December 2016. The war continues.

Mr Assad is Iran’s closest Arab ally and Syria is the main transit point for Iranian weapons shipments to the Lebanese Shia Islamist movement Hezbollah, which has sent thousands of fighters to support government forces.

Five million people – most of them women and children – have fled Syria, according to the UN. Neighboring Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey have struggled to cope with one of the largest refugee exoduses in recent history.

Only a political solution could end the conflict. The UN Security Council has called for reviving the 2012 Geneva Communique, that was intended to create a “transitional governing body with full executive powers “formed on by mutual consent.”

What has happened in Syria may also happen in the Philippines with the Opposition helping ISIS and its local counterpart the Maute group in Marawi. Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II named Antonio Trillanes IV, Bam Aquino, Gary Alejano and Ronaldo Llamas as conspiring with the rebels. Llamas was the political adviser of former President Benigno Aquino III. As in Syria local politics is stoking an international force to wreak violence and destruction in Mindanao.

Perhaps the most telling sign that local politicians have tied up with ISIS and Maute group is the discovery of P79 million in cash, checks from an Maute hideout in Marawi.

Like Syria, the Philippines may become more than just a fight between those for or against Duterte with the opposition Liberals bent on removing the president who vowed punishment for the graft and plunder in the Aquino administration. The Supreme Court should take note of these developments. It will be a mistake to think that the Marawi City is only local politics.

President Duterte’s martial law in Mindanao was necessary to avoid another Syria to develop right at our doorstep.

The ISIS and Maute’s followers say it wants to establish an Islamic caliphate in the southern Philippines. Last year, Isnilon Totoni Hapilon also known as Abu Abdullah al-Filipini, a Filipino militant linked to ISIS pledged his allegiance to the Islamic State. A preacher, Hapilon has been trying to unite several smaller Islamist groups in the region, including the Maute, who are mostly in Marawi.

Last year, members of the Maute were arrested in connection with a bombing at a night market in Davao City, Mr. Duterte’s hometown.

President Rodrigo Duterte cut short a trip to Russia recently to oversee the military operation and declared martial law in Mindanao. Without a strong president like him, we are cooked. 

Duterte warned that he will impose military rule over the rest of the country if need be given the ISIS threat. We have seen it happen in Syria.

 President Duterte said he will not take chances on how to deal with terrorists and their local allies. “They began it, we will end it,” he said.