Singapore offers planes, drones to Phl

SINGAPORE – Singapore has offered a military transport airplane, drone surveillance aircraft and use of combat training facilities to support the Philippines’ fight against the rising threat of Islamist militancy, the defense ministry said yesterday.

The offer stemmed from talks in Manila earlier this week between Singapore Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen and his Philippine counterpart Delfin Lorenzana.

Surrounded by Muslim majority countries and with a Muslim minority of its own, Singapore is worried by the small but dangerous number of people in the region who have been radicalized by Islamic State (IS).

Ministers describe the terror threat against the wealthy city-state as the highest in recent years and alarm was heightened in May when a militant group linked to IS seized Marawi City in Mindanao.

Security forces are still battling to regain control of the town and President Duterte this week asked Congress to extend martial law until the end of the year on Mindanao, the only Muslim majority island in the largely Catholic Philippines.

During the past two months Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines launched joint maritime and air patrols over their shared boundaries in the Sulu Sea, to guard against the movement of militants between Borneo Island and Mindanao.

Supporting the regional effort, Singapore’s Defense Ministry said that it had offered a C-130 transport plane to deliver humanitarian supplies, drone surveillance aircraft and use of training facilities for the Philippines military.

“While the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is confident that Marawi will be secured from terrorists soon, further concerted efforts are required to ensure that other terrorist cells do not entrench themselves in the southern Philippines, as this would cause instability to the rest of ASEAN,” the ministry said in a statement, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations.