KUALA LUMPUR: The head of a Philippine Muslim rebel group warned Monday that the Daesh group could gain from frustrations in the country’s south following the failure of the Philippine Congress to pass an autonomy bill as part of a peace agreement.

Murad Ebrahim, chairman of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, said the militant group has attempted over the past year to recruit supporters in Mindanao but his group has worked to convince people that the peace pact signed with the government in 2014 was the best solution.

But he said the delay in enactment of the bill that aims to establish a more powerful and better-funded autonomous region for minority Muslims has led to frustrations that could be capitalized on by Daesh and other small hard-line rebel groups.

Malaysia is a facilitator in the peace talks, and Murad spoke while passing through Kuala Lumpur.

“There have been some efforts of penetration (by Daesh) but they have not succeeded in establishing a stronghold in Mindanao,” he said during a news conference. “But now after the non-passage of the (bill), we are quite concerned that they can capitalize on this because the (frustration) of the people in the area is now very strong.”

In Manila, Philippine presidential adviser on the peace talks Teresita Deles agreed that “frustrations of the people on the ground can lead to recruitment for radical, extremist thought and action.”