Philippines welcomes Indonesia’s offer to help fight extremism

January 3, 2018

The Philippines welcomed Indonesia’s offer to share its best practices in Islamic education as part of efforts to address and prevent extremism not just in the country but in the rest of Southeast Asia.

“Indonesia is one of the models for the kind of Islamic education that the Philippines and ASEAN can look into to counter the rise of extremism,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano said in a statement Wednesday.

Cayetano welcomed the visit to Davao of Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi who was expected to meet President Rodrigo Duterte and announce her government’s full support to Manila’s efforts to defeat Islamic extremist groups in Mindanao.

“Our Indonesian friends do not want to see another Marawi happening and are offering to help us counter radicalization through education,” Cayetano said.

According to Cayetano, the Philippines has an existing Memorandum of Understanding with Indonesia on education and is in discussion with Jakarta on another Memorandum of Understanding on Islamic Education.

Jakarta’s offer was among the initiatives taken up during the tripartite meetings against extremism held last year in Manila between the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Acting Assistant Foreign Secretary Robert Ferrer said the department will continue to engage and collaborate with Indonesia on the Islamic education initiative which shall be undertaken by the Department of Education. DMS