Terrorists, sea row threats to security in 2019

Posted to the Manila Times (Dec 30, 2019): Terrorists, sea row threats to security in 2019 (By Dempsey Reyes)

THE Philippines faced major security challenges in 2019 — terrorism, the South China Sea dispute, and insurgency.

The year started literally with a bang with a series of suicide bombings in Sulu.

The first occurred in late January when twin explosions inside a church in Jolo took the lives of 20 people and injured dozens. Authorities blamed the incident on suicide bombers whom they identified as Indonesians.

The second incident was also in Sulu, near a military detachment. One of the bombers was Norman Lasuca, a young Filipino believed to have been trained by the Abu Sayyaf Group’s Ajang-Ajang.

The police and the military said Lasuca was the first local suicide bomber in the country.
Another bombing occurred in Indanan, Sulu where a woman, pretending to be pregnant, detonated a bomb and killed herself in the process.

Government security forces were also able to neutralize potential bombers who were reported to be plotting to cause chaos in Sulu.

The military said that five suicide bombers in Sulu were under the care of Hajan Sawadjaan, one of the Abu Sayyaf leaders tagged by the United States as the new “emir” of the Islamic State (IS) in Southeast Asia.

Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana admitted that terrorists “are [a] big concern because of the trouble they could create like the Marawi siege and the series of bombings.”

He said to prevent suicide bombings, government troops need to locate terrorists “before they can create trouble.”

Reed Bank ‘incident’
An incident along the Reed (Recto) Bank on the South China Sea (West Philippine Sea) nearly caused a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Manila after a Chinese vessel rammed into a Filipino boat with 22 fishermen on board on June 9. It was a Vietnamese ship that rescued the distressed Filipinos.

President Rodrigo Duterte, a staunch supporter of China, called the sinking a “little maritime accident.” Lorenzana admitted that China’s activities in the disputed sea was beyond the Philippines’ defense capabilities.

While terrorism and the sea dispute continued to threaten the nation’s security, nothing could be more unnerving than facing the challenge posed by the enemy from within.

The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has “infiltrated all sectors of the society and government through their united fronts due to the insidiousness of their methodology to destroy our government,” Lorenzana admitted.

“We have to have a better strategy to defeat them,” he said amid the possible revival of the peace talks with the National Democratic Front of the Philippines, the CPP’s political wing.

One strategy of the government was the formation of the National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict with Duterte and National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. as co-chairmen.

Lorenzana lamented, however, that the task force has been “targeted” by the NPA and its “fronts.”

The Defense chief and self-exiled CPP founder Jose Maria “Joma” Sison have exchanged tirades and locked horns over the next venue of the looming peace negotiations.

Lorenzana said he did not see any new challenges when asked what he expected in the coming year.

“What do I expect next year? More of the same thing. Our enemies will remain the same: NPA, IS-affiliated terrorists and the [West Philippine Sea] disputes.”

https://www.manilatimes.net/2019/12/31/news/national/terrorists-sea-row-threats-to-security-in-2019/669113/