Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — Immigration officials are stepping up efforts to ward off foreign terrorists entering the country using backdoor routes.
This comes after President Rodrigo Duterte himself said that extremists from nearby countries were already in Mindanao, which Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Eduardo Año had pegged to be numbering around 40 – with more expected to arrive in the coming months.
Related: AFP chief: 40 foreign terrorists in PH; more may arrive in coming months
But the Bureau of Immigration (BI) admits it is difficult for all border crossing stations, given their limited staff and the country’s porous borders.
Atty. Tonette Mangrobang, BI spokesperson, said on Tuesday that it was indeed possible that foreign terrorists had slipped through the country’s ports.
Mangrobang added undesirable foreigners were hard to detect if they had proper documents.
“It is very difficult to flag them. But we are relying heavily on military and police intel,” she said.
The BI is now recruiting 36 immigration officials from Davao and Palawan.
They will be deployed to Brooke’s Point and Balabac in Palawan; Tibanban, Davao Oriental; Batuganding, Davao del Sur; and the islands of Taganak and Bongao in Tawi-Tawi.
These ports will each have six more border crossing officers.
The Bureau has some one thousand individuals on its lookout list. It’s working closely with other countries, especially Malaysia and Indonesia, to keep terrorists out of the Philippines.
CNN Philippines’ Cecille Lardizabal contributed to this report.
