COTABATO CITY—Police in the lone autonomous region for Muslims in Mindanao are closely monitoring threat groups which could become sources of security risks for Pope Francis when he visits the country in January next year.
Chief Superintendent Noel delos Reyes, police chief of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM), refused to identify what groups these are but the region is known to be one of the bases of operations of the terror group Abu Sayyaf.
ARMM Governor Mujiv Hataman had said the region was an “inevitable factor” in the security assessment for the Pope’s visit.
The Abu Sayyaf, which operates in the ARMM provinces of Basilan and Sulu, is known to have links with the international terror network al-Qaida and its Southeast Asian branch, Jemaah Islamiyah.
Delos Reyes said the ARMM police opened social media accounts and communication lines to seek help from the public in monitoring threat groups.
One of the accounts to which people could report threats to the Pope, he said, is @proarmm on Twitter.
He, however, said there was no specified threat yet against the Pope.
The Army’s 6th Infantry Division, based in Maguindanao province, said it had sent soldiers to key areas in Maguindanao where the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a renegade Moro guerrilla group, was active.
On the national level, a police media statement said that “the PNP assures the public that its anticriminality campaign and other normal public safety operations in the areas that the Pope will visit will not be compromised.”
The statement said the PNP had “activated Security Task Force (STF) Papal Visit 2015 to secure Pope Francis.”
Hataman said Francis’ visit to the country offered an opportunity to strengthen interfaith dialogue between Muslims and Christians. Nash B. Maulana, Inquirer Mindanao