THE Bureau of Immigration has tightened the screening of all foreign nationals arriving in the Philippines in connection with President Rodrigo Duterte’s order to arrest all jihadist indoctrinators headed for Mindanao.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente ordered Associate Commissioner and current Fugitive Search Unit intelligence chief Carlitos Licas to tighten security and step up the monitoring of all foreign nationals arriving in the country.
“It is important to ensure that persons from countries friendly with ISIS will not use the Philippines as their hiding place and jump-off point to their targets,” he said.
BI spokesperson Antonette Mangrobang told reporters the bureau will be coordinating with other law enforcement and security agencies to monitor and track down suspected members of ISIS.
“Given the pronouncement of the President, we will coordinate with various law enforcement and security agencies if they have the identity of the person,” Mangrobang said.
The BI has also called on the public to take part in the anti-terror drive by reporting suspicious presence of persons in their area, particularly if they are foreigners.
She said the bureau remains committed to enforce its mandate against undesirable aliens especially terrorist.
Meanwhile, the military, which has repeatedly denied that the terrorist Daesh already has a footing in the country, said that it was taking seriously what it believed was a call for an attack on the Miss Universe contest set to be held in the country next year.
The military said a recent bomb-making video posted on social media, apparently by ISIS militants in the Middle East, carried a message in Arabic script reading: “create bomb for Miss Universe.”
“We are taking the threat seriously,” said armed forces spokesman Colonel Edgard Arevalo. “We reiterate that there is no ISIS in the Philippines.”
“What we have are groups claiming affiliations with ISIS in their bid to draw funds. It is not farfetched for ISIS to claim to have cells in the Philippines to show global membership.”
