SINGAPORE — The Republic has offered to help the Philippines with counter-terrorism and humanitarian efforts in the country’s restive south, where foreign fighters affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) militant group have been battling Philippine troops for months. 

Following a meeting with his Philippine counterpart in Manila on Tuesday, Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen offered Singapore’s help to improve the Philippine army’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capabilities via the use of a detachment of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). 

He also offered to allow Philippine troops to train in the Singapore Armed Forces’ (SAF) urban training facilities, and to send a Republic of Singapore Air Force C-130 transport aircraft to deliver humanitarian supplies to evacuees from Marawi, the city under siege from the IS fighters.

Based on a transcript released by Singapore’s Ministry of Defence, Dr Ng said in a media interview on Wednesday (July 19) that Philippine Secretary of National Defence Delfin Lorenzana had expressed his appreciation and accepted the Republic’s offers “in principle”. 

Dr Ng said he had discussed with Mr Lorenzana “ways in which the SAF can help” the Philippines’ armed forces. Among other things, Mr Lorenzana had expressed “the need for training in urban settings”. In response, Dr Ng offered the use of the Republic’s urban training village to train Philippine troops. 

“This is very suitable for the operating environment that the (Philippines’ armed forces) now finds itself in … in Marawi, and in future, in other places … in Mindanao,” added Dr Ng. 

Both defence chiefs recognised that Marawi and the surrounding areas in the southern Philippines are very large, with many surrounding islands. With surveillance being an issue, Dr Ng said he had offered his Philippine counterpart the use of a UAV unit.

On the timeline for the initiatives, Dr Ng said that logistical matters had to be ironed out first. 

Nevertheless, “the sooner you deal with (the problem), the better”, he added. “I expect the humanitarian aid — once we know what they need — for the C-130s to fly up … it is not a big logistical challenge,” he said. 

The use of Singapore’s urban training facilities by Philippine troops will be done in batches, given the number of soldiers involved, he added. 

Dr Ng stressed that the terrorism threat in the region has to be taken seriously because of the “serious repercussions”. 

“We have seen what happened after the Bali bomb blasts (in 2002 and 2005),” Dr Ng said. “The same can happen if the situation worsens, whether it is in Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia or Singapore. Therefore ... we have to combat this threat together.”

A “clear reason” Singapore is contributing to international counter-terrorism efforts is that “if you don’t combat terrorism together, terrorists will attack countries individually, and no individual country’s residents can be safe”, he reiterated.  

Since fighting broke out in Marawi on May 23, Philippine security forces have remained locked in battle with militants for the ninth week running. 

Regional defence ministers have warned that countries in the region will face long-term security problems lasting for decades if the unrest in the southern Philippine city of Marawi worsens or spreads. 

Speaking to reporters after hosting a roundtable discussion on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue last month, Dr Ng said regional leaders “have a clear realisation that if the situation in Marawi and Mindanao is allowed to escalate or entrench, it will pose decades of problems for Asean (Association of South-east Asian Nations) cities”.

Dr Ng reiterated that, if the situation is not contained, terrorist cells will entrench themselves in any part of Asean and launch attacks on other cities. Ultimately, the battle against the terrorism threat cannot be won by military and security response alone but by also involving communities, he added. 

“There has to be some level of community policing ... what we have done in Singapore is to bring in the community, and when they alert us, (our) de-radicalisation programme begins,” he said.

If the authorities are alerted early, they can intervene, he noted. “Because we had some success, more families are willing to say, ‘If I alert the authorities, it does not mean that I have lost my family member forever’. And this is a big part that the community can play,” he said.