Philippines 11th out of 162 countries in terrorism index

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines ranked 11th out of 162 countries in terms of the impact of terrorism in the Global Terrorism Index 2015, a tool that analyzes the trends in terrorist activities worldwide.

The country’s ranking improved from 9th in 2014 as it saw a decrease in the number of deaths related to terrorism.

The Philippines experienced 378 terrorism incidents last year that left 240 persons dead and 367 others injured. A total of 529 properties were damaged because of the atrocities.

The number of terrorism-related fatalities, nevertheless, went down by 18 percent to 240 in 2014 from 291 in 2013, according to the Global Peace Index 2015 report.

“Terrorism in the Philippines is intrinsically tied with nationalist and separatist claims by people living in provinces in southern Philippines,” the report read.  

“The largest individual group was the New People’s Army (NPA), a communist organization, which claimed responsibility for 32 percent of deaths in 2014,” it added.

The NPA has about 4,000 members nationwide based on latest military estimates, virtually unchanged in the last few years despite the military’s claims that the group is already on a decline.

The Philippines’ ranking was the second highest among Southeast Asian countries covered by the report. It was a notch lower than Thailand (10th) but higher than that of Indonesia (33rd), Myanmar (41st), Malaysia (49th), Cambodia (113th), Laos (121st), Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam (tied at 124th).

Because of the lower number of fatalities, the Philippines’ terrorism index score went down slightly to 7.27 from 7.29 previously.

Iraq, which is being plagued by the presence of terrorist group Islamic State, ranked first in the index followed by Afghanistan, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.

Countries that scored zero in the index or those least affected by terrorist acts were Benin, Botswana, Costa Rica, Cuba, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Guyana, Haiti, Japan, Latvia, Lesotho, Lithuania, Malawi, Mauritius, Mongolia, Namibia, North Korea, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, South Korea, Swaziland, Timor-Leste, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Uzbekistan, Vietnam and Zambia.

The Global Terrorism Index 2015 report said deaths from terrorism rose to 80 percent last year to the highest level ever, with 32,658 people killed from 18,111 in 2013.

Boko Haram and the Islamic State were jointly responsible for more than half or 51 percent of all global fatalities in 2014. According to the report, 78 percent of all deaths and 57 percent of all attacks occurred in just five countries namely Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria.

“Iraq continues to be the country most impacted by terrorism with 9,929 terrorist fatalities the highest ever recorded in a single country,” the report said.

The global economic cost of terrorism has hit an all-time high at $52.9-billion. There have been more than 61,000 terrorist attacks worldwide since the year 2000.

A project of think tank Institute for Economics and Peace, the Global Terrorism Index assesses 162 countries based on four indicators namely total number of incidents, fatalities, injuries and property damage.