Manila: Another major attack is being prepared by extremists in Southern Philippines, officials said, adding it was President Rodrigo Duterte who divulged this information to them.

Senator Franklin Drilon, during an interview in the Senate following a three-hour meeting in Malacanang attended by Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, and Senators Richard Gordon and Panfilo Lacson as well as House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez and Majority Leader Rodolfo Farinas, said the President received “intelligence information about new threats posed by extremists in the South”.

“The President’s briefing appear to be serious, but that was what he said [threat of terror attack],” Drilon said.

Drilon said the President did not specifically mention the Maute Group — an extremist organisation that operates out of Lanao and is known to have allied itself with a Basilan-based faction of the Abu Sayyaf — as a cause of this threat, but what he did mention is that this organisation draws inspiration from the Middle East-based Daesh.

“He informed us of that renewed threat because Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana has requested for additional manpower and therefore, that would require budgetary allocation,” said Drilon, adding that the move would require the deployment of a further 20,000 soldiers to Mindanao.

Drilon said Duterte is also is looking at forging closer regional cooperation with neighbouring countries, particularly Indonesia.

On May 23, the Maute-Abu Sayyaf Isnilon Hapilon faction launched an uprising in Marawi City causing the evacuation of thousands in an urban area in Lanao del Sur in Central Mindanao, which is regarded the “Philippines’ Islamic City”.

The fighting continues to this day, although attacks had been less intense as before with the territory held by the extremists getting smaller by the day.

The information from the President himself about another impending terror attack in the South also came as foreign ministers of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) started to arrive in Manila for the Asean Ministerial Meeting (AMM).

“Counterterrorism and countering violent extremism will definitely be high on the agenda [in] the meeting,” Department of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Robespierre Bolivar said.

Foreign ministers and senior officials from 27 countries will gather in Manila for the 50th Asean Foreign Ministers’ Meeting and Related Meetings at the Philippine International Convention Centre (PICC) from August 2 to 8.

Some 1,700 diplomats are expected to take part in the gathering.

Violent extremism is a growing concern in the region, especially following the Philippines’ experience in Marawi City where extremists and their cohorts from other country were able to enter the country and launch a major attack.

Asean is composed of Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.