US envoy warns terror threats remain in southern Philippines

May 3, 2018

United States Ambassador Sung Kim on Thursday said terrorism threats remain in southern Philippines nearly a year after the defeat of Islamic State-linked militants in Marawi City.

The five-month fighting left more than 1,000 mostly Muslim militants dead.

"Both our experts including those in the military and their Filipino counterparts believe that it continues to exist and we must remain vigilant," Kim told a news conference.

Kim said the US will continue joint training and provide equipment to help Filipino forces.

"We intend to continue everything we are doing with the Philippine military as well as Philippine law enforcement to make sure to be prepared for events such as the Marawi siege," the US envoy said.

US actions, he said, "would include the training and exercising together and it would include equipment grants and sales and continued sharing of intelligence and information."

Kim said  the US government would provide an additional P182 million or about $3.5 million to help almost 58,000 internally displaced people in Marawi, bringing total assistance by Washington to nearly P1.4 billion or $26.4 million.

“US assistance is directly used to support ongoing emergency relief operations as well as longer term stabilization and rehabilitation for Marawi City and surrounding areas,” he said. “This is a very important work and we hope to do more in the coming years.” DMS