Suspected Pakistani terrorist denied entry anew

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has barred a Pakistani man, believed to be an Islamic State (IS) trainer, from entering the country for the second time.

Naeem Hussain, 36, was intercepted by BI agents at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga on Sept. 22, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente confirmed yesterday.

Hussain had arrived on an Emirates Airlines flight from Dubai, according to Morente.

BI officer-in-charge Deputy Commissioner Marc Red Mariñas said this was the second attempt of Hussain to enter the Philippines.

BI records showed that the suspected terrorist was first intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport last May.

“He was turned away because he is on our alert list of suspected international terrorists for being an alleged trainer of Daesh,” Morente said.

Hussain was immediately excluded and booked on the first available flight to his country of origin.

Daesh is also known as IS or Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

Its members have been waging war against the United States and its coalition partners in Iraq and Syria, where the terrorist group wants to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Hussain was on the watchlist of the military, which sought the BI’s help in monitoring the Pakistani’s possible entry into the country.

During questioning, Hussain claimed that he has been working as a digital designer.

He said he traveled to the Philippines to visit his Filipina girlfriend, who lives in Olongapo City.

30-day detention for terror suspects backed 

Senators are supporting the proposal of security officials to extend to 30 days the detention of terror suspects arrested without warrants and other amendments under a strengthened Human Security Act (HSA).

Security and military officials made their pitch to amend the HSA during the Senate hearing on various bills, which seek to strengthen the 11-year-old anti-terrorism law jointly held by the committees on public order and dangerous drugs; national defense and security; justice and human rights, and finance.

Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who chairs the public order committee, described the HSA as “a dead-letter law” and the “weakest” of its kind in the region.

“For one, no person or organization has ever been prosecuted under the HSA in the past 11 years. In fact, what may be considered the first and only implementation of that act was the proscription of the Abu Sayyaf as a terrorist organization by the regional trial court in Isabela City, Basilan,” he said.

Lacson cited the case of Australia, which has enacted 61 anti-terror measures since the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in the US, to keep up with the growing sophistication of terror threats.

 He said the country should learn its lesson from the Marawi siege. He added that martial law currently imposed over Mindanao is practically toothless.

Under the anti-terrorism law, suspects may “not be detained for more than three days without the written approval of a municipal, city, provincial or regional official of a Human Rights Commission or judge of the municipal, regional trial court, the Sandiganbayan or a justice of the Court of Appeals nearest the place of the arrest.” – With Paolo Romero