Martial Law: Member State Information

Last week's martial update ended with a story about the DND downplaying the significance of ISIS' role in the Basilan suicide attack.

Hataman also downplayed claims by the Islamic State, saying, it was propaganda by the terror group. “Mahilig naman mag-claim mga yan. Mga yan mahilig din mag-propaganda. Hindi naman suicide yun kasi nasita,” he told the regional newspaper Mindanao Examiner. 

I closed out that update remarking that the DND ought not to live in such a state of denial as it will only put the public in danger and allow more attacks to happen. Worldwide events this week underscore that warning.

The AFP should look to the US mission in Afghanistan if they want reasons on why they should never be lax in their duties or count ISIS out for the fight. This week ISIS suddenly returned with a vengeance in Afghanistan by suicide bombing students.

https://www.thenational.ae/world/mena/afghan-government-shaken-by-bloodstained-week-after-taliban-and-isis-attacks-1.760777

The death toll is thought to run to hundreds of troops, police and civilians, while 37 were also killed in the ISIS suicide bombing of a class for Shia students studying for college entrance exams. 

In the largest Taliban attack, hundreds of fighters stormed parts of Ghazni, barely 80 miles south of Kabul, and spent five days in the city before they were forced out. 

Taliban fighters stormed army bases in Faryab and Baghlan and dozens of soldiers were killed in each attack.

It would not be unreasonable to see parallels with the Philippines' own double front war on terrorism with the NPA and Islamic militants, many who are pledged to ISIS. This week the UN also released their own report on ISIS and their global reach.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/isis-fighters-iraq-syria-un-report-jihadis-raqqa-iraq-a8492736.html

There may be up to 30,000 Isis fighters still active in Iraq and Syria, a new UN report says – despite the caliphate being dismantled last year.  

The UN research released on Monday found that between 20,000 – 30,000 militants, around five times as many as previously thought, remain in mostly desert territory on the border between the two countries. 

While many of Isis’s top commanders and strategists have been killed, the figure includes fully military trained members and “a significant component of many thousands of active foreign terrorist fighters”.  

It also said the group still has “hundreds of millions” of dollars in funds. 

How are they financing themselves? Investing in hotels of course.

16. Despite the damage to the group’s quasi-State bureaucratic structures, ISIL maintains some financial structures, and financial direction still emanates from the core leadership. Reports persist that ISIL members have managed to invest in the region and infiltrate businesses, such as construction companies, money exchanges, agricultural entities, fisheries and real estate, including hotels (see S/2018/14/Rev.1, paras. 12–13). Concerns have also been raised about ISIL financial facilitators and networks moving their operations to neighbouring countries.

17. ISIL is still able to channel funds across borders, primarily by relying on hawala networks and money service businesses (both unwitting and complicit ones), as well as cash couriers. Furthermore, the ISIL core appears to continue to support its affiliates financially, although the extent of this support is unclear and may be declining. A key tactic used by ISIL is to route funds through intermediary countries, with ISIL directing funds to a transit country before the funds are moved to the destination.

http://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/2018/705&referer=/english/&Lang=E 

What does this report have to say about the Philippines? 

67. In the southern Philippines, the threat from terrorism persists despite losses suffered by groups linked to ISIL during the siege of Marawi City (seeS/2018/14/Rev.1, paras. 58 and 59), with remnants regrouping, reactivating training camps and recruiting, attracting hundreds of followers both inside and outside the Philippines.97 Furthermore, post-Marawi arrests of suspected foreign terrorist fighters who were not South-East Asian, some of whom travelled to the Philippines using stolen or false documents and/or broken travel routes, indicates that the southern Philippines continues to be a magnet as a destination and transit point for foreign terrorist fighters from outside the region, in part because it presents an opportunity for militants to engage in actual combat and owing to the availability of firearms.98  

71. According to Member States, ISIL affiliates in the Philippines do not lack financial resources. In addition to having received funding from the ISIL core, they secured millions of dollars by looting banks and homes in Marawi and have been using those funds to recruit, reportedly paying would-be fighters a joining fee of $300 to $400 and also providing a firearm.107

All the footnotes in these two paragraphs say, "Member state information." Since the Philippines has not contradicted this report it is safe to assume that means the Philippines supplied the authors of this report that information. That means the DND knows 100% that ISIS in the Philippines still poses a significant threat. That means when the AFP tries to downplay the role of ISIS in a terrorist bombing, after they have claimed the bombing, and knowing full well ISIS is not dead yet that the AFP is lying to the people. It means their public denials about ISIS is just a facade to cover their butts.

Not only is ISIS in the Philippines well funded but so is the NPA.

http://visayas.politics.com.ph/army-npa-collects-p40m-annually-from-extortion-activities/

New People’s Army rebels are getting up to P40 million a year from extortion activities in Western Visayas, an Army officer stationed there said. 

Col. Benedict Arevalo, 301st Infantry Brigade commander, said they expect the NPA to intensify its extortion racket with the 2019 elections looming closer. 

“We recovered proofs that are more than sufficient to prove that they have been into massive extortion activities,” Arevalo said. 

He said the NPA-Komiteng Rehiyon Panay (KRP) gets P30 to 40 million a year from such activities, based on documents seized from Maria Concepcion “Concha” Araneta-Bocala, the CPP-NPA-NDF secretary general of KRP.

40 million just from the Western Visayas! Next year politicians will have to pony up more money in order to campaign in NPA controlled areas. They even admit they pay this extortion. This has been happening for a long time.

From 2004:

https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2004/03/20/243270/politicians-told-not-pay-npa-campaign-fees

Candidates will be charged in court if they pay so-called permit-to-campaign fees to the New People’s Army (NPA), President Arroyo said yesterday. 

Interesting that Arroyo, who is now the Speaker of the House and a staunch Duterte ally, said that while President Duterte, as mayor of Davao, said the exact opposite in 2013.

http://davaotoday.com/main/politics/new-peoples-army/npa-taxation-a-reality-just-pay-them-says-duterte/

As to the NPAs asking taxes he said “I cannot put it to a stop. So factor that in your investments. If you pay to the BIR (Bureau of Internal Revenue), you prepare also for the NPA.” Some participants giggled and smiled on this remark.

Another joke? If so the punchline has deadly consequences since the NPA uses those "taxes" to fund their terrorist activities.

https://news.mb.com.ph/2018/08/15/duterte-terminates-peace-talks-with-cpp-cites-abuses/

“I cannot deal with the Communist Party because to date, they have killed so many thousands soldiers, barangay captains, innocent civilians, suspected of being agents of the military,” he said. 

“We have suffered and — in numbers. And I think it would not be good. We will just have to continue fighting,” he added.

Why was he able to deal with and befriend this group when he was mayor of Davao? They had killed thousands then. How has the CPP-NPA been able to kill so many? Where did they get the money for weapons and ammunition but from the extortion Duterte has said to pay? And now he wants to fight them? What that really means is brave men from the AFP and PNP will have to sacrifice their lives to fight a terrorist group Duterte, the Commander-in-Chief of the Philippines' military, befriended and to whom he encouraged farmers to just pay.