Philippines, Indonesia boost exchange of info on terror threats

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government and Indonesia are working on enhancing their exchange of intelligence information, particularly on terror threats affecting the region.

The two countries are planning to implement the Joint Area Intelligence Meeting (JAIM) mechanism to address the threat of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI).

Militants of the Jakarta-based JI were reported to be crossing the territorial waters between Indonesia and the Philippines.

International intelligence communities consider Indonesia as the JI main operations center, parts of southern Philippines as training ground while Singapore and Malaysia were tagged as finance headquarters of the terrorist group.

The JAIM was included in the agenda of the 29th Vice Chairman’s Conference of the Philippine-Indonesia Joint Border Committee Cooperation to be held in Davao City starting today.

The JAIM would provide intelligence information as a basis for the formulation of a more enhanced and developed mutual cooperation between the two countries.

JAIM would be held at least once a year to discuss matters of intelligence value related to the border agreement.

The venue of the meeting would be alternating between the Philippines and Indonesia, and the date would be determined by mutual consultation.

The holding of the JAIM is aimed at strengthening the monitoring of the entry of goods and persons in the border crossing stations in the two countries.

Officials noted the efforts of the Philippines and Indonesia to coordinate security and intelligence matters in contrast to moves of issuing adverse travel advisories on perceived security threats.

Malacañang lamented that other countries that issued the spate of adverse travel advisories did not even bother to coordinate with their Philippine counterparts on intelligence matters to check out if the reported terror threats are real and accurate.

The United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and France issued separate warnings against traveling to the Philippines citing imminent terror attacks, particularly in Metro Manila.

The British government yesterday said there is nothing new and substantive in its travel advisory to the Philippines.

The British government said the travel advisory against the Philippines remains virtually the same from last year, Malacañang said, citing a report from the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA).

“We welcome the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s clarification that the recently reported travel advisory on the Philippines was based on a basically unchanged year-ago assessment,” Secretary Herminio Coloma said.

Coloma said the UK’s statement comes as a positive development to the call made by President Aquino on concerned countries to at least clarify and specify the reasons for the adverse travel advisories they made against the Philippines.

DFA spokesman Ed Malaya said the British government, through its Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO), has clarified that they did not issue any new advisory to its nationals against traveling to the Philippines.

The Philippine embassy in London, through its charge d’affaires Reynaldo Catapang, received the notice from the FCO that it had only issued a revised travel advisory.

“The UK did not issue a new travel advice, but rather added a minor sentence in their (previous) advisory to include a few general locations where terrorist attacks may take place,” Malaya said.

“The FCO explained that its assessment of the overall level of threat in the Philippines has not changed for over a year,” he said.

Save for the UK, other countries, particularly the US, which its ambassador, Harry Thomas, said is open to a review of the Philippine-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA), have not made any clarifications yet.

President Aquino had expressed disappointment over the travel advisories, which he has downplayed.

Mr. Aquino said he might take the opportunity to discuss the issue in this week’s Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Japan to request his counterpart heads of state to lift the adverse advisories.

Malacañang also said there is no connection between the terror alerts in the Philippines issued by the US and its allies over Mr. Aquino’s announcement to review the VFA.

“We’d like to believe that there is no connection between the travel advisories and the review of the VFA,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said over radio station dzRB over the weekend.

Malacañang has been reiterating to foreign countries to be more circumspect in issuing travel warnings even as it vowed not to belittle any threats to security.

Valte said the President’s “displeasure” was over the government’s not getting prior notice of the issuance of the advisories, despite the Philippines’ being a major ally in the global war on terror.

“We have reason to believe, as the President has already said, that the basis for the travel advisories is not as solid as we would like. Well, we think it’s disputable - it’s something to that effect that we’re as concerned about the safety of the visitors who come to the country as well as our citizens,” she said.

Valte said it must be noted that the Philippines had already tightened security even before the alleged threat to the US had been uncovered following the deadly bus bombing in Cotabato on Oct. 21.

“As our people can see now, we don’t take these things lightly - we have taken measures already to tighten security. You’ve seen it all around,” Valte said.

“Even the MRT (Metro Rail Transit) and the LRT (Light Rail Transit) have also imposed tighter security. Our police have been on alert since the Cotabato bus bombing. So, again, it’s just a call for vigilance also on the part of our people. It’s a dissonance in terms of our own safety and the safety of those around us,” she said.

While the President has already called for everyone to be vigilant, Valte said the administration remains convinced that “the advisories are based on raw reports that affected the country in a negative way.” – With Delon Porcalla