The Philippines again received new weapons from the United States military to help in the fight against terrorists, including extremists now holed up in Marawi City.
The powerful weapons that include Gatling-style machine guns may neutralize the firepower of the ISIS-linked Maute and Abu Sayyaf groups sowing terror in Mindanao. But eliminating the extremists completely will be difficult unless the root cause of the problem is effectively addressed by the government.
Senate President Aquilino Pimentel III, citing studies, noted that violent extremists around the world “often exploit the conditions brought about by poverty to recruit men who have very limited economic and employment prospects.”
The lawmaker suggested that developing the economy and infrastructure in Mindanao could prove to be the government’s most effective weapons against terrorism and extremism, adding that creating jobs and economic opportunities would aid efforts to thwart attempts to radicalize the youth in the region.
It is easy to recruit young people to join the cause of the Maute group. The extremists obviously succeeded in expanding their ranks by offering financial rewards. With little education and economic opportunities in Mindanao, the recruits readily sympathized with the terrorists and took up arms.
The government still has time to rectify the Mindanao situation. The National Economic and Development Authority and its Investment Coordination Committee on Wednesday endorsed three major rail projects with a combined cost of over P531 billion, including the Mindanao Railway Project’s Tagum-Davao-Digos segment.
The Mindanao railway project aims to provide a more efficient, reliable and affordable transportation to boost tourism, industry and the overall economic development in the area by connecting existing and emerging growth centers in the Davao region.
The ambitious project is timely for the largely undeveloped and strife-torn Mindanao region. It will certainly create jobs and many economic opportunities, and hopefully weed out the seeds of discontent in the island.
