Army chief warns of terrorist sleeper cells outside Mindanao

May 22, 2018

Philippine Army Chief Lt. Gen. Rolando Bautista warned on Tuesday of terrorist sleeper cells outside Mindanao.

In an interview in Fort Bonifacio, Taguig City, the official said the military discovered that during the Marawi siege, there were ISIS sleeper cells also in Luzon and Visayas.

“You can see, there are ISIS cells in Baguio, in Dagupan, in Tarlac, Pangasinan, in Visayas there are in Samar, in Cebu so forth,” he said.

“So if they again orchestrate terrorist activities, it might be in the form of lone wolf. If they activate that they can create terrorist activities simultaneously,” he added.

However, a source in the military contradicted Bautista's statement.

The source explained that those who joined the ISIS or Ansar Khalifa Philippines (AKP) during the Marawi siege, who came from various parts of the country, such Baguio City, could not be considered as sleeper cells.

"They are recruits from those areas and joined the jihad in Marawi...if ever they return to their area after the siege to consolidate and recover, it will be difficult for them to launch individual and simultaneous attacks at different parts of the country due to financial, logistical, security and cultural reasons,” the source noted.

Source further explained that a sleeper cell is a group composed of terrorists trained to perform specific missions.

“When you say sleeper cells, they are (composed of) active members with specific project in an area with the intent of conducting future attacks. And cell should have a leader, bomb maker, a person to conduct surveillance, logistics man, with safe house,” the source said.

“It’s a group of specialized and trained actors that take perform specific mission or tasks, directed by a leader, and compartmentalized. Now assuming there are ISIS members who return in Luzon after Marawi, they cannot be considered immediately as sleeper cells,” the source added.

Bautista also said that the military has a short list of potential candidates who might replace slain terrorist leader Isnilon Hapilon as the emir or ISIS in Southeast Asia.

He refused to give further details about the short list but he confirmed that Abu Dar was among in the list.

Dar was among the sub-leaders who managed to escape from the soldiers during the operation in Marawi City last year. Robina Asido/DMS