Philippines intensifying antiterrorism monitoring ahead of presidential address
Intelligence units dispersed in all quadrant sites to monitor terror groups and their affiliates.
ZAMBOANGA: The Philippine military is reportedly intensifying its antiterrorism monitoring to prevent attacks that may disrupt President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.'s second State of the Nation Address on July 24.
Intelligence agents have been deployed in certain areas in Mindanao to monitor movements of the Abu Sayyaf Group and other terrorist organisations including the Dawlah Islamiyah, according to Col. Randolph Rojas, chief of the Joint Task Force Zamboanga, in a report.
Rojas said all intelligence units have been dispersed in all quadrant sites to monitor the presence or movement of the terror groups and their affiliates.
“We have close coordination with intelligence communities in the neighbouring provinces," he said reportedly.
"That is our mandate, to monitor the activities of the terrorists in this part of the region,” he added, noting no terror attacks have been recorded in Zamboanga City in the past six years due to the military’s continuous antiterrorism operations.
He said they have not monitored any threat from the terror group amid reports that Abu Sayyaf bomb expert and subleader Mudzrimar Sawadjaan, also known as Mundi, was spotted in Basilan province last month.
Sawadjaan, tagged in several church suicide bombings in Sulu province, is wanted by both the Philippines and Malaysia.