MANILA: The Philippines has officially welcomed America’s decision to classify the Maute Group as a terrorist organization.
The US recognizes the Mindanao-based hard-line group as an affiliate of Daesh, and the Philippines views the group’s inclusion in the US list of foreign terrorist organizations (FTOs) as a positive development.
“This reaffirms our long-held belief that the Maute Group is composed of local terrorists aided by foreign extremists,” said a statement from the president’s office. “This likewise recognizes the decisive action we have taken in liberating Marawi from these terrorists.”
The Maute Group was among seven extremist groups added to the sanctions list by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC). The five others were Daesh-affiliated groups from Bangladesh, Egypt, Somalia, West Africa, and Tunisia.
In a statement released Tuesday, the US State Department explained that the list highlights groups and individuals who “have committed, or pose a significant risk of committing, acts of terrorism.”
The Philippine’s Department of National Defense (DND) spokesperson Arsenio Andolong said that with the Maute Group and the Islamic state in the Philippines (IS-P) both now on the FTO list, the DND expects that these groups will find it more difficult to carry out their plans.
“Like any organization, (they) need funds and resources to sustain their operations. With the affirmation of their status as a terrorist organization by the US government, the flow of money from their supporters to their cells will be adversely affected, and their network, as well as the movement of their members, will be monitored more closely. The world has suddenly become even smaller for them,” Andolong told Arab News.
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesperson Brig. Gen. Bienvenido Datuin said: “Such a declaration from foreign countries will, of course, invariably help us in many ways in our fight against local terrorists and their foreign cohorts.”
He explained that the groups’ inclusion on the FTO list meant that their supply lines and financial sources would now be subject to far heavier scrutiny, as would any lines of communication with terror groups in other countries.
International security expert and retired Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent Stephen Cutler told Arab News that inclusion on the list “permits some strong actions against material support of these groups by US people, organizations and financial institutions. It allows the government to sanction banks, etc. for facilitating funding to the Mautes and organizations allied with them.
“Their supporters can be denied entry to, or continued stay in, the US, and it allows sanctions (to be imposed on) entities providing supplies to them,” he continued.