Duterte and ISIS
In a speech delivered in Malacañang Palace last August 15, President Rodrigo Duterte expressed his views on terrorism denouncing the Islamic State as having no political ideology and its barbaric practice. He gave a very unequivocal warning to the terrorist group that their actions could bring out the worst in him saying he can be ten times more brutal than them. This President's speech about ISIS is a follow up on his earlier remarks before soldiers in Zamboanga del Sur advising them that they should always be prepared because in three to seven years, the Philippines will have an ISIS problem. He further expressed his concerns about supposed missionaries roaming presently in Mindanao for indoctrination.
This latest pronouncement from no less than the President indicates that the creeping presence of ISIS in the Philippines, particularly in the Muslim areas of Mindanao is here and real. Yes, he is right and we all should be concerned that the terrorist threat of ISIS will grow out to be a bloody nightmare in the coming years. It does not take to be a terrorist from another country to stage a suicide bombing with the aim of mass casualties. All it takes is one indoctrinated homegrown Filipino to be so convinced of the ISIS propaganda and the next thing we know, lifeless bodies of innocent civilians are littered in our public places. If you look at the latest terror attacks in Europe and the US, the perpetrators grew up and lived in the local communities. In the fight against terrorism, there is no single identifiable enemy in the form of an individual or a country. It is a fight against a radical ideology and a fight for a way of life.
As mentioned by the President, there are foreign looking "missionaries" roaming around Mindanao in order to indoctrinate. In one of my previous columns, I called on the Bureau of Immigration to take a more proactive approach at our Visa Waiver Program ensuring that the foreigners who enter the Philippines under this program are well documented and properly checked. Our seas in the southern border must also be strengthened and secured from any possible entry by foreign terrorists through that route. We must all be vigilant on who these foreigners are, what countries they come from, who financed their missions and what kind of activities they are engaged in. The very people that these indoctrinators target are those who feel left behind, unsecured, oppressed, unrepresented and those who are losing hope that their dreams will go unrealized. Unfortunately, these are the types of people who could easily be swayed by a far more funded, more