UAE | General

Al Qaida efforts in Philippines stymied - Arroyo

  • From Our Bureau Chief
  • Published: 00:00 October 11, 2002
  • Gulf News

President Gloria Arroyo said the efforts of the Al Qaida network and the Jemaah Islamiyah, believed to be the Al Qaida conduit in the south-east Asian region, have been stymied in the Philippines, with no chance of their getting recruits and resurrecting terrorist activities in the country.

"I think they have been stopped short in many of their efforts," Arroyo said. She added that many arrests have been made, and that agreements with the United States and neighbouring countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia have helped in the fight against terrorism.

"Nonetheless, we need to continue to be vigilant and to prevent poverty from creating fertile conditions for terror organisations to recruit," Arroyo stated.

However, the military said the Al Qaida terror network, including the Jemaah Islamiyah, has succeeded in establishing training camps in key areas in Luzon and Mindanao.

Militants have set up camps in Bulacan in the north and in Maguindanao in the south, over the past few months, said The Star, quoting unnamed sources.

The Star noted that the training camps were allegedly established by suspected Al Qaida members in Anda, Pangasinan in northern Luzon, San Clemente and Tarlac in central Luzon. These camps have since been abandoned and their members have gone to an unspecified area in suburban Bulacan which is closer to Manila.

The Jemaah Islamiyah reportedly established a training camp in Buluan, Maguindanao, southern Philippines, said the source.

But the camps in central Luzon were used to teach recruits how to make bombs, the source said. The police arrested nine recruits during a raid of the camps in Pangasinan and Tarlac last May.

At the same time, a raid in San Clemente led to the arrest of Dexter Mayuno from Makati City, and the killing of his companion, Khalid Trinidad.

Those who were arrested in another raid in Pangasinan were Dawud Santos, Pio de Vera, Marcelo Egil, Allan Borlagdatan, Redendo Delosa and Angelito Aris.

One of these confessed that the camp in Pangasinan was funded by a foreign group which was represented by a Jordanian identified as Nhedal Al Dalain.

Al Dalain was recently deported from the country. Sources said Al Dalain was linked to Mohammed Al Ghaffari, a Jordanian who was accused of staying in the country illegally and arrested in suburban San Juan last Monday.

Al Ghaffari was also pinpointed as the leader of the Rajah Solaiman Revolutionary Committee, which established the suspected Al Qaida camps in Pangasinan and Tarlac.

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