Domingo cites new reports of stronger ‘Balik Islam’ in CL

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO, Pampanga — Former Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo warned that a well-funded "Balik Islam" movement has become stronger in Central Luzon and could be used as springboard for terrorist activities by Muslim extremists.

In an interview with local reporters, Domingo, who resigned as immigration chief last Jan. 4 to run for mayor of this city, said she got this information from the officers of "two of the best intelligence outfits in the world" who paid her a visit here recently. She declined to identify them.

Domingo said she arranged for their meeting with Chief Superintendent Vidal Querol, Central Luzon police director, and Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, Pampanga police director, on the matter.

"There is a big movement of ‘Balik Islam,’" she said.

She noted that while moving to the Islam religion "is not in itself a radical move," some converts can be classified as radicals such as those who were caught undergoing training in Pangasinan two years ago.

Domingo said many of the converts are those who have worked or are still working in the Middle East.

The movement to convert Central Luzon folk to Islam, she said, seems to have foreign funding.

The movement was first reported in Central Luzon two years ago as a move to bring back Filipinos to their "original religion" before Christianity was brought to the country by Westerners.

But since the arrest and deportation of suspected terrorists Al Ghafari and Al Dhelain believed to have funded the movement and the military training of extremists in the country, Domingo said the funds are no longer being channeled through banks.

"They no longer use the usual conduits which enabled us before to trace the funding source with the help of international organizations," she said.

Ghafari and Dhelain, she said, headed foundations that funded the "Balik Islam" movement and attempted to establish a terrorist base in Central Luzon.

Since the deportation of the two Saudi nationals, she said, "They now use couriers to carry the money in cash... This is what the Yakuza does; they no longer use their credit cards or their bank accounts."

This, she said, was confirmed during the arrest of a Palestinian before she left the immigration bureau.

She said the Palestinian was caught with left-over cash of about $10,000 and P500,000 after he claimed to have distributed funds for Muslim scholars in Cotabato, Zamboanga, Jolo and Tawi Tawi which he had frequented.

"Unfortunately, we found an immigration infraction against him so we just had to deport him and put him on the blacklist," she said.

"Of the money they (foreign funders) get from donations purportedly to build schools or mosques, only 10 percent go to schools and mosques, while 90 percent go to military training of the ‘Balik Islam’ and to the purchase of arms and ammunition," she said.

Meanwhile, Domingo dismissed allegations by her detractors that she is facing 13 cases in the Ombudsman for alleged anomalies during her term as immigration chief.

"I am facing only three, not 13 cases, and none of them (involve) graft and corruption," she said.

"These cases were filed against me by alien criminals led by Chinese drug lords who I had caused to be arrested and jailed," she said.

She cited in particular the case of seven Chinese nationals who she administratively detained after 7,000 kilos of shabu were found in their possession.

The seven were ordered released by the court due to a "technicality" and not based on the merits of the case.

"The police sought an arrest warrant in Makati and arrested the suspects in Quezon City and that technicality prompted the judge to dismiss the case. The police refiled the case two or three months later and that gave them time to file charges of grave abuse of authority and similar cases against me," she said.