A HOUSE leader on Saturday said 2017 would be the best year for the Duterte administration “to unleash the full might of the government” against the Maute group, given the latter’s ties to foreign terrorist organizations that make it an imminent threat to national security.
Camarines Sur Rep. LRay Villafuerte broached the idea as he cited reports that the Maute group was bold enough to hoist the black emblem of the Islamic State or ISIS in Butig town in Lanao del Sur that the terrorist group has occupied.
At the same time, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana linked the Maute group, along with the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, to last week’s bomb attack in Leyte.
Villafuerte said: “According to recent reports, the Maute members were already withdrawing from Butig following a government offensive against them.
“The fact that they are now using the ISIS emblem confirms its allegiance to this dreaded terrorist organization, which is alarming.
“We hope that the President will not relent in his campaign against the Maute. The only options that should be made available to the Maute is to surrender or perish.”
Villafuerte noted that Prof. Rommel Banlaoi, a security analyst who chairs the board of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research, had described the Maute group as one of 10 terrorist organizations in the country that had declared loyalty to ISIS, an international jihadist group.
Banlaoi also said the Maute group had links to the Jemaah Islamiyah, associated with Al Qaeda.
“This group could become the single biggest threat to the Duterte administration’s plan to finally transform Mindanao into a primary growth driver of the Philippine economy, given the serious security implications of Maute’s links to international terrorist groups,” said Villafuerte, who is vice chairperson of the House Committee on National Defense and Security.
Villafuerte also cited a separate report on Lorenzana’s warning that ISIS could regroup in the Philippines should the global coalition formed to crush it succeeds in its military offensive in Iraq.
Lorenzana reportedly said Maute and the Abu Sayyaf Group, among other militant groups in Mindanao, have been courting ISIS for recognition as a “wilayat” or province in Southeast Asia.
“The Duterte administration should continue to pursue the peace process with Islamic groups in Mindanao, but should never waver in its hardline stance against terrorist groups or transnational crime organizations whose paths do not lead towards peace but towards violence and destruction,” Villafuerte said.
Villafuerte said a planned joint military training by the Philippines with Malaysia and Indonesia starting this year “would, hopefully, better protect our country not just from the ASG, but also from other homegrown terrorists like the Maute group.”
Villafuerte said this joint training was crucial to the Duterte administration because neutralizing ASG terrorists and protecting the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas from pirates would go a long way in addressing the festering peace and order problems that have hampered the growth and development of Mindanao despite its vast potentials.
“On top of being a defense initiative, the joint military training agreed upon by the Philippines with Indonesia and Malaysia would also be a big help in facilitating the movement of international navigation, trade and commerce in the Sulu-Sulawesi Seas, which has relatively received little attention compared to other more prominent maritime interests in the region,” Villafuerte said.