MALACAÑANG said on Friday that the government is moving to contain isolated incidents of violence to improve the Philippines’s dismal international ranking in anti-terrorism measures.
This, even as Palace Deputy Spokesman Abigail Valte disclosed that authorities are still verifying the real nationality of a Filipino-looking terrorist suspect linked to an Islamic terrorist group, also known as Isis.
In a news briefing, Valte played down reports giving the country a low ranking in the latest Global Index due to alleged proliferation or terror groups or frequency of terrorist activities.
“Hindi naman maraming terorista. May mga insidente,” she said.
Valte said government officials concerned with security issues are “trying to see what incidents have been counted kasi nakita natin iyong difference from the incidents in 2011, 2012, 2013 and ang most recent year.”
“We’d like to see what those incidents are and compare it with the data that our law-enforcement agencies have. But certainly, I think everyone is unified in the goal that we want to lessen these incidents,” Valte added. She confirmed that Palace officials are also reviewing the report.
“We have been discussing [it]…. You’ve seen also the President talk about Isis in the past few days,” she said, referring to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria linked to recent terrorist attacks abroad.