Philippines is 12th country most affected by terrorism
The Philippines ranks 12th globally in terms of terrorism's impact. AP/Bullit Marquez, File
MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines ranked 12th globally in terms of terrorism's impact due to an increase in the number of fatalities and terrorist activity, according to a global terrorism index.
According to Global Terrorism Index 2017, the Philippines, China and Thailand have accounted for 85 percent of the total deaths in the Asia Pacific region since 2002. The report provides a comprehensive summary of key global trends and patterns in terrorism covering a period of 17 years, from 2002 to 2016.
The Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar meanwhile have seen the largest number of terrorist activity in the region since 2002.
"In 2016, these three countries accounted for 94 percent of attacks, which is a significant increase from 55 percent in 2002, " said the report which was produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace and based on data from the Global Terrorism Database.
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The report also noted the control by jihadist forces of Marawi City.
As a region, the Asia Pacific had the third lowest impact from terrorism, but there is a wide variation among the countries in the region, with the Philippines ranking 12th globally while six countries including Mongolia, North Korea and Papua New Guinea ranking 134th as they had not experienced any terror activity in the last five years.
"Over the last fifteen years, there has been a 720 percent increase in the number of terrorist attacks from 106 in 2002 to 870 in 2016," it said.
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The study also noted that there were 350 terrorism-related deaths in the Asia Pacific in 2002, and these increased to 744 in 2014 but declined in 469 in 2016.
Globally, 2017 is a turning point in the fight against terrorism as there is a decline in the number of deaths from terrorist attacks to 25,673 which represents a 22-percent improvement from its peak in 2014.
Despite this improvement, worrying trends were recorded by the investigation.
"More countries experienced at least one death from terrorism. This is more than at any time in the past 17 years and reflects an increase from 65 countries in 2015 to 77 in 2016," it said.
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