President Marcos strongly rejected reports of the Sydney attack linking the two perpetrators' 28-day stay in the country to training at some militia camp. Investigations reveal that the two men booked in at a hotel during their stay in Davao where they may have spoken to someone but did not engage in any activities. For Climate Conflict Action, “restraint and caution against hasty conclusions” are needed. But Dawla Islamia in Mindanao is not defeated and is still recruiting.

Manila (AsiaNews) – What did the two perpetrators of the Bondi Beach massacre really do during the 28 days they spent on the Philippine island of Mindanao in November, before returning to Australia and taking action against Jews gathered on the beach for Hanukkah just a few days later? And is their stay in Davao City proof enough that the southern Philippines is still a hub for global jihadist terrorism eight years after the siege of Marawi?

These questions are now being hotly debated in Manila and Mindanao.

Speaking today before a room packed with senior military officers, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. forcefully rejected the notion that the country is a "training hotspot for terrorism" as suggested by some reports.

“For years, we have acted decisively to dismantle terrorist networks, to secure communities, and to sustain our hard-earned peace. To dismiss these gains with unfounded speculation is not acceptable,” the president said. 

To back this claim, the Philippine government cites the results from investigations into the presence in the Philippines of Sajid Akram, 50 (who hails from Telangana, India, and not Pakistan, as initially claimed) and his son Naveed, 24, the two perpetrators of the massacre.

As reported by MindaNews, a Mindanao-based news website, the two stayed in a budget hotel in the city for the entire 28 days of their stay in Davao and tended to keep to themselves.

Philippine National Security Advisor Eduardo Año confirmed that “every night they slept in the same hotel.” They jogged in the morning and returned after two or three hours. The longest they spent out was eight hours.

Hence, such a “time window will not suffice for them to get out of Davao. So, that’s where they really stayed. Maybe they’re using the internet heavily, maybe they’re talking to somebody else. But [in terms] of physical activities, there are none,” Año explained, thus excluding the possibility that they took part in military training with terror groups based in Mindanao.

A call for caution also comes from Climate Conflict Action (CCAA), an independent Philippine NGO working to promote peace in Mindanao, which noted, however, that, while weakened compared to a few years ago, Dawla Islamia (the Philippine branch of the Islamic State), is not defeated.

“The government and civil society groups have questioned the narrative that the Philippines remains a terrorist hotspot,” reads a statement released by the group. In fact, there is a “good reason – Dawla Islamia has been significantly degraded by relentless military attacks since its height during the siege of Marawi in 2017.”

Yet, “just a month ago, the government was celebrating the neutralization of two ISIS leaders, i.e., Abu Jihad and Mohammad Usman Suleiman, demonstrating that the extremist threat persists”.

Thus the “incident underscores the need to remain vigilant and continuously monitor the resurgence of violent extremism, including its reemergence in supposedly VE[*]-free areas such as Basilan,” the CCAA reports.

The NGO “has observed worrying signs of mobilization and polarization, including increased youth recruitment efforts and youth defection from their families and clans.”

Meanwhile, “violent encounters between the military and extremist-linked groups in the BARMM[†] spiked after the recent mid-term elections.”

For this reason, the CCAA wants the Philippine government and peace-building groups in Mindanao to boost “reintegration programs of former VE combatants and members and avoid the inadequate and limited focus on preventing and countering violent extremism (P/CVE) only.”

To this end, “We need more community-based, early response, and sustainable reintegration of returnees and their families using a restorative justice framework.”

Finally, the CCAA calls for action “to address violent extremism without amplifying fear, hatred, or misinformation. We urge restraint and caution against hasty conclusions while investigations are still underway. Premature conclusions and speculations that lack evidence risk fueling religious- and identity-based conflict and may obscure the deeper and more complex drivers of violence and radicalization.”

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[*] VE: violent extremism.

[†] Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

• philippines
• australia
• davao city
• sydney
• bondi beach
• hannukah attack
• islamic state
• ferdinand marcos jr