Stop recruitment of Filipino youth by ISIS -- Pimentel

Senator Aquilino "Koko" Pimentel III today urged the government to take immediate steps to stop the reported plans of the Islamic States of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to recruit young Filipino fighters from Muslim Mindanao.

"We should not allow terrorist groups to derail our ongoing peace efforts," said Pimentel, referring to the creation of the Bangsamoro Autonomous region that is viewed as the final resolution to decades of bloody conflicts in the South.

He cited published reports of law enforcement organizations that there was an alarming increase in the number of Filipinos going to Iraq and Syria reportedly to train and fight with the ISIS in conflict zones in the Middle East.

Pimentel said efforts to end the conflict in Mindanao through legal means would be likely jeopardized, citing a report that Filipino fighters who are veterans of the ISIS campaign could pose a serious threat because they might use their experience here.

He said much has been invested in the almost 18-year search for peace that any threat that would likely derail its realization should be prevented rather than going back to square one that had cost so many lives and untold destruction in the region.

Pimentel said Congress is expected to prioritize the approval of the draft Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL) in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution so that it could be immediately subjected to a referendum to complete the legal process.

This would give rise to the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, replacing the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), a major component of which as spelled out in the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB) is the gradual phase out of MILF combatants.

Intelligence sources said recruits from Southeast Asia, including the Philippines, are easily lured by the promise of high pay by the heavily-funded rouge organization that drew their funds from oil smuggling, human trafficking, theft and extortion.