MANILA: The Philippines and the United States are discussing the details of possible assistance that Manila can provide in fighting the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (Isis) that is reportedly recruiting members in this country, Malacañang said yesterday.
President Aquino was asked several times about the Isis while in Europe in relation to the security situation in Mindanao. Aquino, however, said there were no reports of Filipinos having joined the Isis. In New York, Aquino said Manila offered to help the US to contain the IS and that Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario was set to meet with US State Dept officials to discuss this.
Presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda told a press briefing that the Department of Foreign Affairs would find out from the State Department “what the US needs and what the Philippines can provide.”
“We don’t want to pre-empt their meeting. So, that’s the discussion right now… they are really meeting precisely to identify what we can do,” he said. Lacierda said the IS had resorted to “naked cruelty and naked violence” and had posed threats to world security.
“Barbarity beyond human decency, we’ve seen that… they have shown in their videos of incidence of beheading. This is totally unacceptable. And so, we agree with the principle laid out by the US government and a number of countries have joined in this effort…against the Isis or the ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant),” Lacierda said.
The Philippine star
