The Philippines and
the United States have vowed to strengthen partnership to address the threats
posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and the deadly Ebola virus.
Armed Forces chief Gen. Gregorio
Catapang Jr. said reports of ISIS recruitment in the country was among the
issues discussed during the meeting of the Mutual Defense Board-Security
Engagement Board (MDB-SEB) at Camp Aguinaldo yesterday.
The MDB and SEB serve as venues
for security cooperation between the Philippines and the US. The MDB focuses on
inter-governmental coordination while SEB deals with non-traditional security
threats like transnational crimes, maritime security and disasters.
“We emphasized that the
challenges of the 21st century will be global,” Catapang said.
He said he wants to include Ebola
pandemic preparedness in the activities to be conducted under the MDB-SEB.
“Pandemics like Ebola virus is a
global challenge. We will talk about it,” the military chief said.
“They (US Pacific Command) have
experienced addressing these kinds of pandemics and we would like to include
that in one of the MDB-SEB activities,” he added.
The World Health Organization
considered Ebola as the world’s most severe health emergency. The current
outbreak of Ebola virus in West African countries has so far killed more than
4,000 people.
Malacañang has given assurance
that the government is working to prevent the entry of the Ebola virus in the
Philippines.
Catapang said the Philippines
should be prepared for other global challenges such as terrorism, radicalism,
climate change, maritime concern, transnational crime and proliferation of
weapons of mass destruction.
He said the Philippines and the
US would intensify intelligence information to combat terrorism.
“There will be CMO
(civil-military operations) activities. There will be hard and soft approaches
to prevent the ISIS from infiltrating the country,” the military chief said.
Catapang said their action plan
includes an awareness campaign about the doctrines of Islam.
By: Paolo Romero
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