Malacanang has been urged to create a body to monitor the recruitment of Filipinos to fight with jihadist groups in the Middle East after two Filipinos were reportedly killed in Syria.
This was learned from a confidential memorandum dated July 14 obtained from sources in Camp Crame, headquarters of the Philippine National Police.
The memo from retired police director Felizardo Serapio Jr., executive director of the Philippine Center for Transnational Crime, asked Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to “consider the creation of a Technical Working Group that will create a database on monitoring and profiling foreign fighters, as a significant contribution to manage and inhibit further presence of Filipinos, as reported, in conflict-stricken areas.”
Serapio also heads the Law Enforcement Integrated Office, which is under Ochoa.
Ochoa, who also chairs the Anti-Terrorism Council, signed approval of Serapio’s recommendation.
[Insert: PDF photo of Memo entitled "Countering the Threat of Foreign Fighters"]
The memo cited a March 20 memorandum from the Department of Foreign Affairs to President Benigno Aquino III on the deaths of two Filipinos “allegedly fighting alongside the opposition group in Syria.”
It also referred to a report by the DFA to a March 20 meeting of the Regional Anti-Terrorism Council Convergence Group for the National Capital Region that “100 Filipinos who traveled to Iran had undergone military training and were deployed to Syria.”
While there have been recent reports that Filipinos are being recruited to be among the thousands of foreigners fighting for the Islamic State, which has established a “Caliphate” after taking control of vast swathes of Iraq and Syria, the DFA memo and report cited by Serapio appears to be the first confirmation of Filipinos actually fighting and dying in the Syrian civil war.
The memo also noted other reports of “a gradual increase of foreign fighters heading off to Syria with contentious movements of threat groups from their home states.”
“To note, a new group has been established in Malaysia. Indonesia, Xinjiang in the People’s Republic of China, Thailand, and the southern Philippines are also observing radical mobilizations,” it added.
Recently, news reports said the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement have aligned themselves with the IS.
Serapio said the international community has already undertaken measures to stem of foreign fighters to the Middle East, who could prove to be security threats when they return to their home countries, and an initiative by the National Intelligence Coordinating Agency, which has created a “committee on monitoring foreign nationals.”
The memo proposed that the technical working group be placed under the ATC’s Program Management Center.
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/95239/amid-reports-of-pinoys-killed-fighting-in-syria-palace-urged-to-create-body-to-monitor-recruitment
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