Philippine authorities are monitoring non-government organizations which funnel funds from Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to local guerrilla groups, a military spokesman said Wednesday.
"The government is aware that some of these NGOs are being used to channel funds from bin Laden or his supporters to the local terrorists in the past and therefore, these institutions [are] being monitored," said Brigadier General Edilberto Adan.
He would not identify the organizations or say how many there were.
President Gloria Arroyo said separately the interior department and corporate watchdog agencies would investigate and neutralize legal organizations caught acting as fronts for terrorist or criminal groups.
Adan also said the authorities have received a foreign intelligence report that about 50 Filipino Muslims were among the foreigners who trained in camps set up by bin Laden in Afghanistan.
Although he would not confirm the report, Adan said they were aware bin Laden had trained "Filipinos who fall under the umbrella of the [local Muslim] separatist group" without specifying if they were with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) or the Abu Sayyaf group.
Both the MILF and the Abu Sayyaf have acknowledged having received support from organizations linked to bin Laden in the past.
The MILF has forged a cease-fire and opened peace talks with the government. But the Abu Sayyaf, which is still holding two American and 16 Filipino hostages in the south, is the target of a massive military operation to destroy them.
Intelligence reports here say a Muslim foundation called the International Islamic Relief Organization had channeled funds to the Abu Sayyaf and other guerrillas operating in the south in the late 1980s to the mid-1990s.
The relief organization was linked to a brother-in-law of bin Laden, Mohammad Jamal Khalifa -- MANILA (AFP)
