By Roy Ramos
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines
Philippine President Benigno Aquino III has formed a national panel to lead government preparations for Pope Francis' visit to the country next January, including security measures amid concerns of recruitment by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
The Malacanang presidential palace announced Friday that the preparations are topped by a security plan in which the Presidential Security Group is tasked to secure the Pope, along with elite forces of the Philippine National Police and a battalion of soldiers who served as peacekeepers in Syria’s Golan Heights.
Pope Francis, the leader of the Roman Catholic Church and the head of state of Vatican City, is scheduled to visit the Philippines from January 15 to 19 next year for the first papal visit to the country after two decades.
In January 1995, then Pope John Paul II – now canonized as St. John Paul II - led the celebration of World Youth Day in capital Manila, after having paid a visit in 1981.
The elaborate security plan is being prepared amid reported threats by ISIL to assassinate the 77-year-old pontiff when he visited Albania two weeks ago. Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi had dismissed the warnings, saying the trip would go as planned as he did not know of any concrete threats.
Habeeb Al Sadr, Iraqi ambassador to the Holy See, had told Italian newspaper La Nazione, “Threats against the Pope are credible”
“Let me be clear, I am not aware of specific facts or operational projects. But what has been said by the self-declared "Islamic state" terrorists is clear. They want to kill the Pope,” he added.
The church leader could also be vulnerable when he travels to Turkey in November, according to the ambassador.
ISIL has captured large swathes of land in Iraq and Syria, later declaring the territories under its control an Islamic "caliphate."
ISIL militants have in recent weeks boasted of wanting to extend their “caliphate” to Rome, the heart of Western Christendom, and have talked of planting the group’s black flag on top of St. Peter's Basilica.
Pope Francis has expressed support for attempts to halt ISIL’s expansion following airstrikes by the U.S. and its Arab allies against ISIL targets inside Iraq – and then Syria - in recent weeks.
"In cases like this, where there is an unjust aggression, then it is licit to halt the aggressor,” he said in an interview last month, adding, "But I stress 'halt'. I don't say bomb, or make war, but rather stop him."
Armed groups in the Philippines’ Muslim south - such as the al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters, a splinter group of the country’s one-time largest rebel outfit that recently signed a peace deal with the government – have pledged allegiance to ISIL in clips uploaded onto video-sharing site Youtube.
In a memorandum circular issued Friday, President Aquino ordered Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. to lead cabinet members and coordinate with the Vatican in preparing for the papal visit.
"All heads of the different government departments, local governments as well as the private sectors are encouraged to participate and coordinate all efforts to make sure that the visit of His Holiness in our country next year will be well organized and peaceful,” Ochoa said in a statement Friday.
Manila Archibishop Luis Cardinal Tagle said the Pope would visit areas affected by Super Typhoon Haiyan, which brought storm surges that killed some 7,000 people last November, as well as parts of Manila.
The Philippines is the largest Roman Catholic nation in Asia, with more than 80 percent of the approximately 100 million Filipinos considering themselves Roman Catholics.
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