The Philippines on Wednesday rejected allegations that the country was used as a base for terrorist training, following reports that the perpetrators of Australia’s Bondi Beach mass shooting had spent time there shortly before the attack.
Presidential spokeswoman Claire Castro said President Ferdinand Marcos Jr strongly rejected what she described as misleading claims portraying the Philippines as an “ISIS training hotspot”.
“No evidence has been presented to support claims that the country was used for terrorist training,” Castro said during a press briefing, reading from a statement issued by the National Security Council.
“There is no validated report or confirmation that individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines,” she added.
The remarks came a day after Philippine immigration authorities confirmed that Sajid Akram and his son, Naveed, who carried out the deadly attack during a Hanukkah celebration in Sydney that killed 15 people and wounded dozens more, entered the Philippines on November 1. They were reported to have travelled to Davao, a city in the southern island of Mindanao.
Mindanao has long been associated with Islamist insurgencies opposing central government rule, prompting Australian authorities to investigate whether the pair may have met extremist groups during their visit.
However, the Philippine military said militant groups operating in the region had been significantly weakened since the 2017 siege of Marawi, a five-month battle between government forces and pro-Islamic State militants that left more than 1,000 people dead and displaced hundreds of thousands.
Military spokeswoman Colonel Francel Padilla said no major terrorist operations or training activities had been recorded on Mindanao since the beginning of 2024, adding that remaining armed groups were fragmented and lacked leadership.
Colonel Xerxes Trinidad also downplayed the likelihood of the suspects receiving meaningful training during their stay, noting that a month-long visit would be insufficient for acquiring skills such as weapons handling.
“Training cannot be acquired in just 30 days, especially for marksmanship,” he said.
Nevertheless, security analyst Rommel Banlaoi cautioned that while insurgent groups were under pressure, they had not been fully eliminated. He said some training camps were still active in parts of central Mindanao and that extremist networks continued to operate through both local and online connections.
