Ex-military solon: ISIS yet to establish conduit in PHL for recruitment activities

From GMA News (Sep 30): Ex-military solon: ISIS yet to establish conduit in PHL for recruitment activities

Amid reports the militant Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) has begun recruiting Filipinos, a lawmaker said Monday the group has not yet established a conduit in the Philippines where it can channel funds to support possible activities in the country.

Magdalo party-list Rep. Francisco Ashley Acedillo, a former member of the Philippine Armed Forces, told GMA News Online that, based on the information he gathered from his sources in the military and intelligence community, the ISIS has not yet managed to recruit a Filipino to join and train with other members of the group in the Middle East.

Acedillo, however, admitted some Filipinos, especially those belonging to rebel groups, may be enamored to join ISIS after watching the group's propaganda videos posted on the Internet.

"There are people who may be sympathetic to ISIS or those who are attracted to the group because it carries a certain appeal to them," he said.

ISIS has become infamous for posting videos of gruesome beheadings on the Internet, with American journalists James Foley and Stephen Sotloff, and British aid worker David Haines among the group's latest victims.,

Cultivation of ISIS sympathizers

But while the ISIS has yet to establish a foothold in the country, Acedillo said the government should remain vigilant for unusual activities by the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) and the Abu Sayyaf (which has pledged itself to ISIS) as they pose a threat to national security.

"The immediate danger to us is the cultivation of ISIS sympathizers. Once these people manage to be recruited by the ISIS, then it becomes an even bigger problem for us," he said.

The Philippine Army had said that it had seen no suspicious activities from either the BIFF nor the Abu Sayyaf group after its leaders pledged allegiance to ISIS last August.

The BIFF is a breakaway group of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) while the Abu Sayyaf is a radical group with ties to the al Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist networks.

Inter-agency task force

House National Defense and Security chair and former AFP Chief of Staff Rep. Rodolfo Biazon said the government should create an inter-agency intelligence task force composed of military and police officials, as well as representatives from the National Bureau of Investigation and the International Police Organization (Interpol), to check reports about possible recruitment activities started by the ISIS in the country.

"All efforts by that intelligence task force I'm proposing should be to suppress the possible recruitment of the ISIS among Filipinos," Biazon said, adding that authorities must do everything to nip the militant group's growth in the country in the bud.

Acedillo, meanwhile, was confident the AFP was actively monitoring suspicious activities planned by rebel and extremist groups, whether or not they are allied with the ISIS.

Proof of this, he said, were the intelligence reports regularly released by the military regarding the presence of foreign individuals suspected of training rebels, because they were spotted near the training camps of the Abu Sayyaf and the BIFF.

"These reports allow us to determine the extent of activities carried out by these groups. I think the military is very much capable of monitoring and addressing threats posed by the ISIS," he said.

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/381601/news/nation/ex-military-solon-isis-yet-to-establish-conduit-in-phl-for-recruitment-activities