SINGAPORE, July 19 — The Republic has offered to help the Philippines with its counter-terrorism and humanitarian efforts in the country’s south, where foreign fighters affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) militant group have been battling Filipino troops for months.
Following a meeting with his Filipino counterpart in Manila yesterday, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen offered Singapore’s help to improve the Philippine army’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities via the use of a detachment of unmanned aerial vehicles.
He also offered to allow Filipino troops to train in the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) urban training facilities, and to send a Republic of Singapore Air Force C-130 transport aircraft to deliver humanitarian supplies to evacuees from Marawi, the city under siege from the IS fighters.
Philippine Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana “expressed his appreciation and in-principle acceptance of the offer from Singapore”, Singapore’s Ministry of Defence (Mindef) said in a statement today.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday, Dr Ng said: “These extremist leaders want to establish bases in cities like Marawi and from there, launch further attacks against other cities within the Philippines and Asean, and urge their cells to attack targets in Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore…
“Peace-loving countries understand that if we do not combat terrorism together, we will be attacked individually, and our citizens will never be safe at home.”
IS-linked groups have declared their goal to attack cities within Asean to form a caliphate.
“While the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) is confident that Marawi will be secured from terrorists soon, further concerted efforts are required to ensure that other terrorist cells do not entrench themselves in the southern Philippines, as this would cause instability to the rest of Asean,” said Mindef. — TODAY
