Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Tuesday belied the reported presence of 100 ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) inspired terrorists in the country.

“I would like to debunk that theory of I think Mr. (Rommel) Banlaoi, I think he was saying that there were already 100 ISIS in Mindanao. We don’t see those people there, not that much,” he said.

“Maybe there are some maybe a couple up to 10, in fact one of them already died… so while they’re losing their territories there, they are trying to escape. They are going back to their own countries,” he noted.

“Now if we have Filipinos there fighting in Syria, then we might expect them to be coming back here. The Malaysian will go back to Malaysia, the Indonesian in Indonesia, so the likelihood that they might transfer from one country to another is very big,” he added.

Lorenzana stressed this is why the government is strengthening security at the southern border of the country.

“We intensified our cooperation with the Malaysians and Indonesians so they will not be able to move from one country to another and we are also intensifying our operations in the south so that we can eliminate them altogether. But I do not believe that they growing in number here,” he said.

In a television interview, Banlaoi, a security analyst, claimed that foreign terrorists have joined the operation of the local groups in southern Philippines.

Banlaoi alleged most foreign terrorists are Indonesian nationals. Robina Asido/DMS