By Recto Mercene & Rene Acosta
Second of three parts
FAR south from the three international airports in Manila, a war continues to rage: a war against terror.
Waged by combined police and military forces, the war has recently unveiled the presence of a group fearfully linked to international terrorist groups.
The death last week of two reported members of the terrorist group Ansar Khilafa Philippines (AKP) fanned belief the Islamic State (IS) has already made its presence in the country or, as what the government maintains, has managed to influence some groups.
What National Police (PNP) operatives found at the site of the killing of two AKP members on Thursday failed to douse such rumors. At Sitio Bulat, Barangay Daliao, Maasim, Sarangani, the PNP found a Barret rifle, homemade bomb components and a black flag bearing the symbol of Isis.
Unlike the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Liberation Front (Biff), which have pledged their allegiance to the IS two years ago, the AKP has been listed as a sleeper cell and a direct offshoot of the IS in the country.
Again, the military claimed there was no direct links between the AKP and IS.
Daesh or IS?
THE raid in Sarangani showed the tentacles and the operations of the AKP has spread in Mindanao. The group’s existence was initially learned by the public through the massive operations by the military in Butig, Lanao del Sur, in February.
The military operations broke a group—called by the military as a “foreign-allied local terrorist group”—with more than a hundred men led by the Maute brothers. The group was strategically settled in a well-entrenched camp located in what was supposed to be a stronghold of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF).
During the weeklong firefight that also forced the evacuation of more than 30,000 people, the military killed dozens of “bandits.” Those slain included their leader Omar Maute and two of his brothers, including Matti. The terrorist group is led and controlled by the six Maute siblings.
After the camp was overran, it yielded IS flags, the same symbol that the group’s members flew during the fighting and wore as bandanas.
In the aftermath of the operations, military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla then said there was no direct link between the IS and the foreign-allied terrorist group.
There were no reports also that tend to indicate local terrorist groups, including the ASG and the BIFF, were getting support from the IS.
“Based on information at hand, there’s no presence of Daesh [Arab acronym for the IS] in the Philippines,” Padilla said. “It has not been established. There’s no direct relation between the group here and the bigger terror group Daesh out there.”
Dismissal
ARMY chief Lt. Gen. Eduardo Año has downplayed the Maute group as nothing but a band of criminals.
“They were just a bunch of guns-for-hire, extortionists and bandits who wanted to be recognized as Isis,” Año said.
What Año and Padilla failed to say concerned the group’s affiliations—that it has ties with both the Southeast Asian terror group Jema’ah Islamiyah and IS.
It was not also stated that the group in Butig, with more than a hundred men, was the main body of the AKP in the country.
Likewise, it was not said that months before the operations, IS flags were already being displayed in several gatherings by young Moro groups in Basilan, Sulu and Zamboanga peninsula.
Padilla has maintained the rumor that Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (Isil) is already in Mindanao is just that, a rumor.
“That rumor has no basis, especially the one that says that they have established a caliphate in Mindanao,” Padilla said, adding that Daesh, instead of Isil, is the appropriate name for these terrorists.
Daesh is preferred over Isil because it is essentially political and ideological. Governments have noted that calling the terrorists ‘Islamic State’ confers it legitimacy —acknowledges its claim to being the “caliphate” and, thus, the supreme authority all Muslims should bow to.
This not only raises their stature, it also insults the mass of Muslims worldwide who consider the Isil no more than a bunch of murderers and terrorists, according to persons familiar with the matter. Also, the claim of being the “Islamic State” is at the core of the IS’s propaganda, and its primary recruitment strategy. Arab governments have, in fact, been using Daesh for quite some time now.
Isil wannabe
ARMED Forces of the Philippines Spokesman Col. Restituto F. Padilla Jr. dismissed the reported presence of Daesh members in Mindanao as “Isil wannabes.”
“There are many groups sympathetic or inspired to the bigger Daesh, that’s the better word to use for this particular group.” Padilla added these groups within the Philippine territory “style themselves in the context of what they see is the fad in the world outside.”
He said when terrorist groups Jema’ah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda became bywords a few years ago, these lawless groups and bandits in Mindanao have styled themselves as belonging to these groups.
Padilla said academics who claim the existence of a caliphate in Mindanao and wrote about them like experts have not even set foot in Jolo and Basilan, bastions of these bandit groups.
“They [bandit groups] are just wannabes,” Padilla said. “Up to this moment the Armed Forces has not seen any clear and verifiable or direct links with Daesh.”
He explained that the Isil are fundamentalists or jihadist militant group who follow an Islamic fundamentalist law, the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam.
Padilla noted the Isil is also different from the Abu Sayyaf. “The Abu Sayyaf is nothing but a bunch of bandits who are more interested in money by demanding ransom.” Aviation Security Group (Avsegroup) Chief Supt. Francisco Balagtas also dismissed reports IS and Isil is present in Mindanao.
“They behave differently than homegrown terrorist,” Balagtas, Avsegroup commander, said. He added that Isil forces need to acclimatize in the country before they could do their dirty work, which would be difficult for them because of our culture.”
“It takes time to acclimatize,” he said. “They have to undergo a case-buildup first, then surveillance.”
Abu Sayyaf
IT was through social media that Filipinos were introduced again to the brutality of the Abu Sayyaf. The group posted a video of their hostages, one of which they beheaded: John Ridsdel of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
That single act brought the Philippines to the center of world attention and brought the issue to Filipinos terror is as closer to home as it is in France and in Brussels, Belgium. These terror attacks brought fresh memories of the 2013 bombing at the Boston Marathon.
The authorities in these countries engaged in a devoted search for the culprits, found them after a thorough manhunt and either killed or imprisoned the perpetrators.
In the Philippines President Aquino and other high officials commiserated with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who denounced the killing of his own citizen as a “heinous act.”
But overall, there was no sense of panic from the citizenry and, instead, the overall response was one of weariness on hearing that Mr. Aquino has ordered the security forces to apply the full force of the law and bring to justice the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group.
The people have heard the same refrain from the highest officials before.
When asked how prepared is the Armed Forces to deal with a terrorist attack, Padilla said he would throw back the same question to the reporter: “Have the Filipinos been able to experience the things that happened in the US, Paris and Belgium?”
Image credits: Nonie Reyes