The Armed Forces of the Philippines said yesterday that it has intensified its intelligence gathering and monitoring of local terrorist groups which might launch sympathy attacks for Iran in the Philippines.
So far, the military has not monitored any local threat group which has openly expressed sympathy to Iran although the AFP is not letting its guard down, said Lt. Gen. Felimon Santos Jr., AFP chief of staff.
Santos, a veteran intelligence officer, said that monitoring local terrorist groups was among the initial plans they thought and discussed to President Duterte during an emergency meeting in Malacañang on Sunday afternoon.
“We were called upon by the President Sunday afternoon just to discuss ‘yung impact sa atin ng nangyari sa Iraq, the killing of one of the Iranian generals, and of course we presented what actions were taken,” he said.
Santos said they were monitoring the defense attaches in the Middle East, particularly in Iran and the neighboring countries, and the local terrorist groups “that might express sympathy to the Iranian cause.”
“As of now, we have not monitored anything but we will continue monitoring and siyempre we are looking at the possible targets ng Iran in other countries and to our country, ano ang puwede nilang gawin just to retaliate,” he said.
The Philippine National Police is conducting profiling of all groups in the country that are possibly sympathetic to Iran.
PNP officer-in-charge Police Lt. Gen. Archie Gamboa said yesterday the move is part of the security measures that Duterte ordered to be implemented if worse comes to worst between Iran and the United States.
“The task of the PNP is local in nature. We are monitoring possible retaliatory attacks by other sectors of society which are sympathetic to Iran,” said Gamboa.
So far, Gamboa said that they have not monitored any specific threat relating to the tension.
“We have no threat of that kind here in the Philippines but there are also security concerns because there might be sympathetic either by race or ideology,” said Gamboa. “So the PNP is profiling possible threats, possible groups which may take advantage so our intelligence monitoring will be continuous,” he added. (Martin Sadongdong and Aaron Recuenco)