Is the Philippines ready for the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant? The answer is no.
ISIL has branches in the Philippines, through members of the Abu Sayyaf Group and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters. ASG and BIFF pledged allegiance to the ISIL in 2014 making them local franchisees of ISIL’s brand of ruthless and mindless terror.
The reasons why Manila is not ready are cited in the 2014 United States State Department report on counterterrorism in the Philippines.
The US government complained of multiple agencies involved in counterterrorism, their limited capability and equipment, and corruption—resulting in inefficiency, confusion, and ineffectiveness. In addition, the agencies have a mixed record of accountability and respect for human rights.
Sometimes, if not often, the incompetence is self-inflicted. The Office for Transportation Security is supposed to screen for terrorist firearms at the Manila airport but it has been using the law to create a business for its people, the tanim-bala (plant-a -bullet) scam in the baggage of hapless airline passengers who must pay a bribe to be set free.
The result is a scandal that is now a-crying international shame. Yet, President BS Aquino III and his Department of Transportation and Communications people have not done anything concrete or positive about it.
A recent Senate investigation of the racket amply demonstrated how grossly incompetent and indifferent DOTC Secretary Joseph Emilio Aguinaldo Abaya and his subaltern, Jose Angel Honrado, the general of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport are about the tanim-bala racket. Both ex-military men, Abaya and Honrado were former security aides of the late President Corazon Aquino, Aquino III’s mother.
“Units with a specialized counterterrorism focus, including the National Bureau of Investigation [NBI] and the PNP Special Action Force [SAF], have limited investigations, crisis response, and border security capacity,” says the report submitted by the US State Department to the US Congress. Despite its low-key language, the US report is still stinging. It says:
“Multiple agencies have jurisdiction over counterterrorism efforts, creating confusion and inefficiency in leading investigations and in response to terrorism incidents.
“Roles and responsibilities between law enforcement and military units that have a counterterrorism mission are often not well delineated. Law enforcement units display moderate command and control capacity. Specialized law enforcement units possess some necessary equipment, but have many unfulfilled needs.
“Law enforcement units have a mixed record of accountability and respect for human rights.
“The ATC provides guidance to agencies responsible for enforcing terrorism laws, but its capacity and authority to ensure cooperation and coordination between agencies is limited.”
“The PNP maintains legal responsibility for ensuring peace and security throughout the county, including arresting terrorists and conducting terrorism investigations. In some of the conflict-affected areas, the PNP has relied upon the AFP to conduct counterterrorism operations.”
“The PNP SAF is the national operational support unit for law enforcement counterterrorism efforts.”
Yet, Aquino did not support his SAF (he stopped the Army near the area from providing air and combat support) when they faced an overwhelming number of murderous groups of bandits while carrying out a counterterrorism effort at Mamasapano last January 2015. The result was more deaths than was necessary—44 commandos killed on the SAF side.
In the prosecution of terrorist suspects, the US government notes that “an under-resourced and understaffed law enforcement and judicial system, coupled with widespread official corruption, resulted in limited domestic investigations, unexecuted arrest warrants, few prosecutions, and lengthy trials of cases.”
“Philippine investigators and prosecutors lacked necessary tools to build strong cases, including a lack of clear processes for requesting judicially-authorized interception of terrorist communications, entering into plea bargains with key witnesses, and seizing assets of those suspected in benefiting from terrorism,” says the US report.
Meanwhile, a major tool of the government against terrorism is the
2007 Human Security Act. The law defines terrorism and provides methods for investigating terrorist suspects. The US government finds the law restrictive on lawmen and wants President BS Aquino to work on its amendment.
“Many aspects of the law have not been used due to a number of strict procedural requirements in the law… including notification to subjects of surveillance before activities can begin and damages of approximately US$12,000 for every day of detention if an individual accused of terrorism is ultimately acquitted,” explains the US State Department report.
Accordingly, the US notes that “President Aquino has prioritized the adoption of amendments to the HSA in three main areas: revise the definition of terrorism to conform to international standards; ease the strict monetary penalties and prison terms against law enforcement officials involved in cases where individuals are wrongly accused and later acquitted; and remove barriers to support investigations.”
The ATC Project Management Center, in coordination with the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat and the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office, ensured the final version of the HSA was fully in line with the Terrorism Financing Prevention Act and other Anti-Money Laundering Act and Philippine government initiatives prior to submission to the House of Representatives.
Four Philippine groups are tagged by the US government as terrorists—the ASG, the Jemaah Islamiya, the BIFF, and the communist New People’s Army.
ASG and BIFF elements are understood to be among the ISIL’s 25,000 foreign fighters (from 80 countries). The 25,000 is triple their number from a year ago. Filipinos become jihadists without borders. Presumably, some of them have flown to Syria to undertake military training. They come back to the Philippines to recruit others or carry out missions like killings, bombings, kidnappings for ransom.
The most celebrated of the ASG kidnappings is the abduction in October 2015 of two Canadians and a Norwegian from a famous Davao resort. The ASG is demanding P1-billion ransom for each or P3 billion ($63.8 million).
The ASG ands BIFF hideouts in Mindanao in southern Philippines could be considered among the overseas “provinces” and “sanctuaries” of ISIL.
With the incompetence and corruption of the military, police and other agencies involved in counterterrorism, ordinary citizens have no recourse but be careful and to secure themselves against the ISIL.
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