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The Philippines said connected Wednesday (December 17, 2025) determination was nary grounds that the state was being utilized for violent training, a time aft it was revealed the men down Australia's Bondi Beach wide shooting had spent November connected a confederate land known for Islamist insurgencies.
"[President Ferdinand Marcos] powerfully rejects the sweeping connection and the misleading characterisation of the Philippines arsenic the ISIS grooming hotspot," statesmanlike spokeswoman Claire Castro said astatine a property briefing,
"No grounds has been presented to enactment claims that the state was utilized for violent training," she added, speechmaking from a National Security Council statement.
"There is nary validated study oregon confirmation that individuals progressive successful the Bondi Beach incidental received immoderate signifier of grooming successful the Philippines."
On Tuesday, the country's migration bureau confirmed that Sajid Akram and his lad Naveed, who killed 15 radical and wounded dozens of others astatine a Hanukkah solemnisation connected Sydney's Bondi Beach, entered the state connected November 1 headed for the confederate state of Davao.
The land of Mindanao, wherever Davao is located, has a agelong past of Islamist insurgencies against cardinal authorities rule.
Australian authorities are investigating whether the 2 men met with extremists during the trip.
The Philippine military, however, said connected Wednesday that equipped Muslim groups inactive operating connected Mindanao had been mostly degraded successful the years since the siege of Marawi.
The five-month conflict for the metropolis that pitted authorities forces against pro-Islamic State Maute and Abu Sayyaf militants claimed much than 1,000 lives and displaced hundreds of thousands of people.
"We person not recorded immoderate large violent operations oregon grooming activities... since the opening of 2024," Philippine subject spokeswoman Colonel Francel Padilla said astatine a greeting property briefing.
"They are fragmented, and they person nary leadership," she added of the insurgent groups.
Colonel Xerxes Trinidad told reporters the father-and-son duo's November travel to the Philippines would not person provided capable clip for important training.
"Training cannot beryllium acquired successful conscionable 30 days ... particularly if you are to acquisition marksmanship [training]," helium said.
But Rommel Banlaoi, a Manila-based information analyst, told AFP that portion galore insurgent groups were "on the run", they were acold from eradicated.
"There are inactive galore progressive grooming camps successful [central] Mindanao. Those did not disappear," helium told AFP, adding adjacent weakened insurgent movements maintained connections "locally and globally online".
