From the Manila Bulletin (Sep 13, 2019):
Suicide terrorism in PH on the rise — security expert
The successive incidents of suicide bombing in the country is proof that suicide terrorism is the newest face of threat in the Philippines and everybody should do their part to counter it, a security expert warned on Friday.
Philippine soldiers walk past the damage area of a catholic cathedral in Jolo town, Sulu on January 28, 2019, a day after two explosions tore through the cathedral. (Photo by NICKEE BUTLANGAN / AFP / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
This could be attributed mainly on the “increasing” influence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to local extremist and terror groups in the country, said Rommel Banlaoi, chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terorrism (PIPVTR), an independent organization created to better integrate peace studies with research on political violence and terrorism.
“I consider it on the rise because of the frequency of suicide terrorist attacks in the southern Philippines,” Banlaoi said in a television interview over ANC.
He enumerated the four incidents of suicide bombing that happened in the past 14 months: the Lamitan City bombing in July 2018; Our Lady of Mt. Carmel Cathedral bombing in Jolo, Sulu in January 2019; the Indanan, Sulu bombing in June 2019 involving the first known Filipino suicide bomber, Norman Lasuca; and the most recent one, the bombing in Indanan, Sulu last September 8 involving a female terror suspect.
Notably, the last three suicide bombings happened in this year alone.
Suicide bombing in the Philippines is not a conventional means of terrorist attack since conventional knowledge suggests Filipinos are not yet prepared to carry out such kind of attacks, Banlaoi said.
“What changed is the global influence as propagated by ISIS. It emerged in a time that allowed opportunities to propagate the ideas [of suicide terorrism],” he explained.
“At the time, there was a conventional knowledge that Filipinos were not yet prepared to sacrifice themselves until ISIS emerged,” he said.
Radicalization thru social media
ISIS is a jihadist militant group which gained global prominence in 2014 due to its massive operations in Iraq and Syria.
If so, how are they able to reach the Philippines and have an influence on local extremist and terror groups?
The answer and the “game changer” is the advent of social media, Banlaoi said.
“For me, the most convincing way to convert people to embrace the idea of suicide bombing is the social media. They started sharing a lot of literature and narratives glorifying suicide terrorism,” he explained.
“At the same time, they promote face to face contact and they recruit them to join them in religious studies. In their religious studies, that’s the start of indoctrination,” he stated.
“In the Philippines, based on my study of profile of those individuals succumbing to the idea of suicide terrorism, they [ISIS] conduct serious profiling of the individuals [targets]. They profile them thru their posting on social media, on the thoughts that they post and the things that they read, and then they will be face-to-face in contact,” he added.
Banlaoi said there is no specific social class being targeted in the Philippines but the most vulnerable sectors are the youth, the out-of-school youths, and the disturbed youths.
Historical roots
Furthermore, Banlaoi said that the rise of suicide terrorism could somehow be attributed to its historical roots in the Philippines.
During the Hispanic period in the 1950s, Banlaoi said that the Sulu-based Tausug of Mindanao had the practice of “parang sabil” or “fi sabil Allah” in Arabic which translates to “dying for the cause of Allah.”
“It’s offering yourself to fight for your self-determination against external forces,” he said.
During that time, Banlaoi said that Spain described such practice as ‘juramentado,’ and the practice lasted until the American period from 1890s to 1940s.
In a previous write up on the Manila Bulletin in July of this year, Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana revealed that extremist fighters in the Philippines have long been known for their “ruthless” style of fighting, crediting them as being juramentados.
“If you go back to history during the American occupation of the Philippines between 1901 and 1915, there was this campaign in Mindanao. Have you heard of the term juramentado? Those are the Moro fighters that would assault the enemy Americans and start cutting peoples’ heads off,” Lorenzana had revealed.
Banlaoi said that after the Philippines gained independence in 1946, the juramentado practice subsided but was tried to be revived by the extremist groups through “Balik Islam” or Muslim converts during the height of Osama bin Laden-founded terror group, Al Qaeda.
Abu Sayyaf Group
One of the affiliations of Al Qaeda in the Philippines is the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), which has been blamed for most, if not all of the suicide bombings in the country.
Military officials pointed to ASG sub-group led by Hajan Sawadjaan as one of the most active extremist groups at present.
Sawadjaan, according to Banlaoi, is considered the de-facto amir or ruler of the Daulah Islamiyah Wilayatul Mashriq or the Islamic State in East Asia.
“He is now believed to have replaced Isnilon Hapilon,” Banlaoi said, referring to the ASG leader who was slain by state forces during the Marawi siege in 2017.
“The group of Hajan Sawadjaan is coddling all foreign terrorist fighters promoting this idea [suicide terrorism],” Banlaoi disclosed.
Fight the rise of suicide terrorism
With this, Banlaoi enjoined all sectors to contribute in the fight against the rise of suicide terrorism in the Philippines.
“It cannot be done through military or law enforcement measure alone. It needs a narrative that will destroy the idea of suicide terrorism as an act of martyrdom,” he said.
In the academe, Banlaoi said it is called deradicalization or counter-radicalization.
“Now, our government has initiated a program to counter that kind of idea. The Philippine government developed the National Action Plan to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism,” he said.
Banlaoi said such action plan entails pursuing various non-military measures in order to address the underlying conditions that compel people to commit acts of suicide terrorism.
It includes providing vulnerable and marginalized sectors with opportunities such as livelihood, education, and promoting the culture of non-violence, spreading the culture of peace, promoting the idea of acceptance, and religious tolerance.
“We are fighting an ideology that is extremist and violent in nature,” he said.
“We have to engage a lot of players to promote the kind of idea that will counter violent extremism. If violent extremists are using social media, we also have to use social media. If they are using religious institutions, we have to use religious institutions. They are also using the universities and schools, we also have to use the same platforms to counter them,” he noted.
“It’s a battle of ideas and we have a saying in the academe that ‘violence starts in the minds of the people so peace should also be inculcated in the minds of the people,'” he concluded.
