Amid the rumors that some of
the Filipinos have already joined the ISIS, President Benigno Aquino III
rejected to believe that Filipinos have already been engaged in the said group. According to him, there is no
strong evidence that says Filipinos have already been engaged in ISIS.
" We do recognize the
threat that we have a very significant population in the Middle East. In just
two countries alone, where the major concentration is, in the neighborhood of
something like 1.2 million who might be recruited, might be brainwashed by
their good organizers," said Aquino.
He said the government is alert
of the threat to Filipinos in the two states, however, it is doubtful that Filipinos would join in the
actions of ISIS.
The President believes that fight
has to devolve into personal level rather than one that is based only on
ideology or religious extremism. Aquino said government has to enable citizens
to participate in the economic gains that are happening.
"Then there is a very
little call for them to be disappointed and to be persuaded by all of these
ideologies that really are not, shall we say, a solution to any of the issues
or problems that they face," he said.
The President said all investors
should maintain the ability to dialogue, the ability to be reasonable and to
have logic as an operative mode of discussion.
Acknowledging the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s statement
that there is an existing ISIS encroachment into the Bangsamoro, Aquino clarified that there is no further
confirmation from the MILF on the control of the so-called
"caliphate".
"What we have in the Philippines currently are people who used to
say that they were affiliates of Al Qaeda. And then now that ISIS seems to be
the ascendancy, they are now affiliates of the ISIS. And then tomorrow a new
group comes about. I assume they'll be joining the group or they will be the
ones forming that new group to take over," he said.
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