http://www.asiasentinel.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2914&Itemid=367
Philippines Surpasses Neighbors in Terror Threat
Written by Our Correspondent
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Risk down in the region as Manila takes exception to its elevated profile
The Philippine government has reacted negatively to a report by the
security consultancy FTI-International Risk that the country has overtaken
Indonesia and Thailand as facing the greatest threat from terrorism.
"It's a matter of perception," President Benigno Aquino III's spokesman,
Edwin Lacierda told reporters in discussing the report at a regular televised
briefing. "We disagree that we have overtaken Indonesia or Southern Thailand."
"But remember that [the Philippine-based terrorists'] pool of recruits is
a lot smaller than that of Indonesia," he said, and that the operations of the
local Abu Sayyaf group have already diminished, based on the latest government
assessment.
"We monitor all threats, whether in the south or in the city. but again,
it is not as grave as it has been assessed," Lacierda said, according to the
GMA News Web site.
But a separate report by Manila-based Pacific Strategies and Assessments
(PSA) backs up the FTI findings, at least when it comes to the island of
Mindanao, saying that in particular a communist threat could drive
international mining operations out of the country.
In all, the FTI report says, "Governments across Asia have made steady
progress in confronting terrorism during 2010, notably in Southeast Asia where
enhanced counter-terrorism efforts have curtailed terrorist attacks and
casualties."
In South Asia especially, the report says, "the risk of attack in the
region remains severe." South Asia, it says, "continues to be an extremely high
risk region while most of Southeast Asia is at low or moderate risk, with
Pakistan facing the threat of major and sustained terrorist attacks, while the
risk to India remains high as well."
However, according to the report, "the risk for the Philippines is
elevated, although this increases to high for Mindanao and other southern
provinces."
PSA is considerably more pessimistic, however, pointing out in its Jan.
10 report that the communist New People's Army (NPA) has vowed to expel large
foreign mining firms operating in the Philippines, chastising the companies for
reaping huge profits while stealing the ancestral lands of indigenous people
and exploiting workers.
As a result, seven major mining companies operating in Mindanao have
threatened to stop operations because of the NPA's increasing extortion
demands.
The Philippine government's attempts to secure mining ventures has been
mostly reactive, the report says, including temporary increases in troop
deployments and establishing checkpoints at mining operations.
But, the report says, "it appears that the Aquino administration's
response is no different from its predecessor," including turning over security
to poorly disciplined militias, a practice that dates back to the 1970s in
Mindanao. It was just such a private army that staged one of the worst
massacres in recent history, with 57 people gunned down, including 33
reporters, in November 2009 in the Mindanao province of Maguindanao.
"The government's inability to curb or contain NPA extortion lends itself
to the impression, both domestically and globally, that it is simply unable to
establish the rule of law, particularly in Mindanao," PSA wrote.
Much of the threat to Philippine security, the FTI-International Risk
report says, "is centered in the Southern Philippines where Abu Sayyaf, the
Moro National Liberation Front, the communist New People's Army, and the Moro
Islamic Liberation Front are all active. Abu Sayyaf appears to be regaining
some strength after a long period of decline and has been conducting
kidnappings, beheadings, bombings and jailbreaks, including a deadly attack in
Isabella City in Mindanao that killed 14 people."
Indonesia's counter-terrorism program was successful in 2010, according
to Steve Vickers, the chairman of FTI-International Risk. While Indonesia's
security services have proven more effective than in the past, "small bands of
extremists remain a threat."
The terrorism profile is also low for most of Thailand, but in the
southern part of the country, it is elevated to high because of a continuing
insurgency from Islamic separatists, the report notes.
"Outside these two sub-regions, the rest of the Asia-Pacific region does
not suffer from significant terrorist risks, although there are occasional
problems in outlying regions such as Xinjiang in Northwest China, which are
largely externally influenced," the report says.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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