A THINK tank on Friday urged the government to speed up the pace of rehabilitation for Filipino Muslims displaced by the Marawi siege, saying that their depressed state made them ripe for recruitment by extremist groups.
The military, meanwhile, said jihadist groups in Mindanao remain scattered, disorganized and leaderless, but nonetheless recommended a one-year extension of martial law in Mindanao because Islamic State (IS)-affiliated groups were still recruiting people to its cause of building a caliphate in Southeast Asia.
In a two-day forum held at the University of the Philippines, the Philippine Center for Islam and Democracy, a Muslim think tank, said the possibility of another Marawi breaking out in Mindanao is large due to the active recruitment efforts being undertaken by foreign and local jihadists among young Muslim Filipinos.
Amina Rasul, PCID president, said that based on input provided by Muslim religious leaders who took part in the two-day consultative forum, foreign terrorists are reportedly baiting recruits with up to P100,000 just to join these terrorist organizations.
Militant clerics have been spotted discussing and spreading violent extremism in refugee camps in Iligan and several other communities in Mindanao, particularly Maguindanao, Lanao del Norte and Sur and Cotabato, he said.
“It is important that government intervenes immediately through hastening the pace of rehabilitation of Marawi,” said Rasul.
Displaced persons are desperate and want to resume their lives, he added, but the lack of economic opportunities and perceptions that government is failing them observed recipes and drivers for violence.
Rasul, who led the Asean Conference on Peace and Preventing Violent Extremism in Southeast Asia last September, said initiatives like these are important to determine the pulse of Filipino Muslims especially religious leaders from Marawi, the National Capital Region and other parts of Mindanao.
Terrorist groups in Mindanao—including the Abu Sayyaf group, Maute group, Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, and other smaller terrorist organizations had earlier banded into a coalition under the Islamic State.
“We are closely watching and monitoring [these groups] and we have determined that there are attempts to once again to build up their forces through recruitment,” military spokesman Maj. Gen. Restituto Padilla said in a Palace news briefing.
The new terrorist group, called “Daulah Islamiyah Wilayatul Mashriq” or the “Islamic State East Asia Division” were the ones responsible for the siege that left the city of Marawi in shambles.
Despite their low numbers, “they still remain to be a threat,” Padilla said as he defended the need to extend martial law.
“Although they have significantly been degraded in terms of capability and manpower, those who survived that siege still remain at large and are attempting to recover by recruiting other members of the society, particularly the vulnerable sector of our population, and they are students, children, women and the like, as well as relatives of those who lost their lives in the fight,” he added.
“They are attempting to do that and the primary means for which they are doing that is through enticements of cash rewards and the like,” he added.
“This is something that we don’t want to happen, for this group to come back again with a vengeance,” he said.
Aside from the DIWM, the military spokesman said that they continue to face significant violent activities from the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters controlling Maguindanao, Lanao and Cotabato, along with the continued existence of ASG forces in the islands of Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi.
He also cited tthe communist New People’s Army as a growing threat in Mindanao, which grew in number during the lull in the peace negotiations.
The Marawi siege in May 23 prompted President Rodrigo Duterte to place the entire Mindanao under martial law. It was extended by Congress to the end of the year when the mandated 60-day period allowed by the Constitution ended.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government also supported the extension of martial law in Mindanao.
Acting DILG Secretary Catalino Cuy said martial law was needed during the rehabilitation of war-torn Marawi City.
In the Senate, the minority Liberal Party opposed the extension of martial law.
“Lifting military rule, specifically in Marawi, will hasten the return of affected residents to their homes, according to its citizens,” said LP president Senator Francis Pangilinan.
He said martial law, together with the airstrikes, was the reason residents fled Marawi in the early days of the Marawi siege. “And martial law is also the reason why they are afraid to return, even in cleared areas,” he added.
Senate Minority Leader Franklin M. Drilon added that an extension as recommended by the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police “has no factual and legal basis and is patently unconstitutional.”
“There is no legal basis for the AFP and PNP to recommend an extension of martial law in Mindanao,” Drilon said.
“We cannot continuously place Mindanao under martial law and suspend the privilege of the writ without an actual rebellion in the region,” Drilon said.
“The Constitution requires the existence of actual rebellion or actual invasion,” he said.
Some senators said they want the AFP to give them an updated security briefing before deciding on its recommendation to extend martial law in Mindanao. With Rio N. Araja
