Terror ‘Sleeper Cells’ Scattered in Parts of PH: Army Commander

While the threat of terrorism had been greatly reduced with the defeat of the Maute-ISIS Group terrorists in Marawi City, Philippine Army (PA) head Lt. Gen. Rolando Joselito D. Bautista on Tuesday bared the existence of “sleeper cells” in many parts of the country.

“Na-discover namin sa (We discovered in the) Marawi campaign na merong (that there are) ISIS ‘sleeper cells’ not only in Mindanao but also in Luzon and Visayas, makikita mo nga dun yung (you will see there) ISIS cells. Dun makikita mo meron sa (There you will see that they have in) Baguio, meron sa (they have in) Dagupan, meron sa (they have in) Tarlac, Pangasinan, sa Visayas naman, meron sa (In Visayas, they have in) Samar, meron sa (they also have in) Cebu and so forth,” he said during the book launch of “Marawi and Beyond: The Joint Task Force Marawi Story” held in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City.

And when asked on what types of attacks these “sleeper cells” can do, Bautista said these terrorists could do the “lone wolf” attacks.

“It might be in the form of lone wolf (attacks). Pag in-activate yun, pwedeng sabay-sabay silang mag-create ng (they can simultaneously create) terrorist activities for example one or two, mag-conduct sila ng (they will conduct an) explosion sa isang (in one) area and yung sa(in) Cebu, assassination, liquidation that will create a big impact, although two or three persons lang ang gumagawa (are doing it), so yun yung most probable na strategy nila (that is their most probable strategy) in the meantime,” the PA chief stressed.

As this develops, Bautista admitted that the declaration of martial law in Mindanao has contributed greatly to government efforts to hunt down remaining terrorists in the island.

“Yes, oo kasi yun, unang-una (First), we can hold a person na particularly pagka very suspicious and may background of terrorist activity kasi sa Human Security Act natin, you can take in custody a terrorist/ suspicious person in 36 hours tapos (and then), after which kelangan i-release mo na siya (you need to release him/her), not unlike itong nangyari sa (unlike what happened during) martial law, na-hold namin sila (we held them), kasi ang pagkuha kasi ng (because taking into) custody is not question and answer but you have to dig the background, kung Indonesian siya (if he/she is Indonesian) we have to ask our counterpart in Indonesia or in Malaysia so it will take time,” he added.

Another advantage of martial law, according to the PA chief, is that troops can search a particular house suspected of being an improvised explosive device or ammunition factory without any warrants from the courts. (PNA)