US extols RP cooperation in battle vs terrorism

WASHINGTON – A proactive partnership between the Philippines and the United States in the battle against terrorism has disrupted and limited the ability of the Abu Sayyaf Group, the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the New People’s Army (NPA) and the Rajah Solaiman Movement to conduct organized attacks, the US State Department said.

In its latest Country Reports on Terrorism released on Thursday, the State Department said Filipino security forces reported killing 10 Abu Sayyaf members and 179 communist guerrillas in 2009.

The National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) in a statistical annex to the report said in 2009, 11,000 terrorist attacks occurred in 83 countries, resulting in more than 15,700 deaths.

It said attacks decreased by about six percent in 2009 and deaths declined by about five percent, marking the second consecutive year attacks and fatalities decreased.

However, the NCTC cautioned against placing too much emphasis on the use of attack data to gauge success or failure of counterterrorism efforts.

The Philippines estimated the NPA began 2009 with 5,240 members while the Abu Sayyaf had 400 fighters. By the end of the year the armed strength of these two groups had fallen to an estimated 4,700 and 390 respectively.

The State Department said the US Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) provided Filipino troops advice and assistance, including training, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance against terrorist elements in the southern Philippines.

Additionally, the US Department of Justice/International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (DOJ/ICITAP) trained 1,601 police personnel in basic police operations and investigation techniques in Sulu province.

The US strategy of offering development opportunities in areas at risk for terrorist recruitment continued to isolate the remaining Abu Sayyaf and JI rebels in the southern Philippines, the report said.

At the same time, Philippine military and law enforcement agencies conducted intensive civil-military and internal security operations to eliminate terrorist safe havens in the Sulu archipelago and central Mindanao.

The report said US officials received excellent cooperation from their Filipino counterparts in obtaining access to terrorist suspects and witnesses for FBI interviews and access to criminal, immigration, financial, and biographic records via mechanisms established in the RP-US Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty. 

The FBI provided Filipino law enforcement officials with vital information for counterterrorism purposes, including investigation of the financing of terrorism.

“This proactive partnership with the Philippine government has yielded solid results in combating terrorist elements,” the report said. 

It said two prominent Filipino fugitives indicted by the FBI were deported to the Philippines by Malaysia and Indonesia.

The fugitive from Malaysia was extradited by Manila to the United States while the other fugitive from Indonesia was undergoing judicial proceedings also for US extradition.

Instability and conflict

The latest annual US State Department Country Reports on Terrorism noted that the Maguindanao massacre is an election-related violence and not the activities of international terrorism, but “these developments are indicative of the instability and conflict in the southern Philippines that complicated the government’s efforts during 2009 to combat the terrorist groups harboring there.”

The report said Philippine law enforcement authorities continued to make little use of the 2007 Human Security Act, which provided additional counterterrorism tools for law enforcement because of key limitations in its application, including stiff fines levied on law enforcement personnel in cases where the suspect is later acquitted or the case dismissed.

During the year (2009), the Country Report on the Philippines said the long-running separatist insurgency in Mindanao boiled over in violence, resulting in thousands of internally displaced persons. Subsequently the government and the insurgents agreed to renew negotiations and the violence waned.

The report highlighted that late in the year an election-related violent episode involving two rival Mindanao clans resulted in the massacre of over 50 civilians, including a number of journalists.

According to the report, data on terrorist incidents are limited and incomplete as many kidnappings or other acts of violence that indiscriminately target innocent people go unsolved, and some shootings and bombings occur in the course of criminal activity unrelated to terrorism.

Kidnappings, associated with both criminal and terrorist groups, continued during the year in Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago. On Jan. 15, 2009, Abu Sayyaf members kidnapped three International Committee of the Red Cross workers in Jolo, Sulu. All either escaped or were released. The Abu Sayyaf reportedly abducted numerous other individuals, including an Irish priest. – With Pia Lee-Brago