DFA: ASEAN trade meet in Bohol to proceed despite foiled terror attack

An Association of South East Asian Nations trade meeting will push through in Bohol province despite last week’s foiled attack by Abu Sayyaf gunmen on a remote part of the central tourist island, the Department of Foreign Affairs said Monday.

Bohol is hosting the ASEAN-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement meeting on April 18 to 22 in Panglao Island.

“We can confirm that the ASEAN meeting in Bohol will push thru as scheduled, unless any new information dictates otherwise,” Foreign Affairs spokesman Robespierre Bolivar told GMA News Online.

All relevant international delegates, he said, have confirmed participation to the meeting.

Bolivar said security measures are in place to assure the safety of more than 200 delegates who are expected to attend.

“The Security Committee of our National Organizing Council is continuously working to ensure the safety and security of the meeting,” he said.

At least four militants, including key Abu Sayyaf commander Moammar Askali, three soldiers, a policeman and two villagers were killed in a daylong gun battle in Bohol's Inabanga town last Tuesday.

It was not immediately known what the Sulu-based militants were doing in Bohol, a province 640-kilometers southeast of Manila that attracts foreign and local tourists to its pristine beaches and wildlife.

Listed as a terrorist organization by the Philippines and the US, the Abu Sayyaf Group was behind numerous terror attacks around the country and kidnappings of mostly western tourists, including Americans. It is notorious for beheading its captives if the ransom demand is not met.

Philippines-US counter-terrorism cooperation in the past has successfully led to the killing of key local terrorists from the Abu Sayyaf, but the group continues to thrive even as its members have dwindled in recent years. Some of its members even pledged support to the Islamic State.

Before the Bohol encounter, the United States Embassy in Manila issued a travel warning to Americans, advising them to take precautions due to “credible information” of possible kidnappings by terrorists in Central Philippines, including Bohol. Other embassies like Canada and Britain issued similar advisories. — VDS, GMA News