Terrorism impact: Phl ranks 9th

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines placed ninth among countries affected by terrorism in the Global Peace Index 2014, a tool used to rank nations according to the impact of terrorist activities.

The Philippines got the worst rank among the Southeast Asian countries covered by the study, namely Thailand (10th), Indonesia (31st), Myanmar (35th), Malaysia (48th), Cambodia (98th), Laos (113th) and Singapore, Timor Leste and Vietnam (tied at 124th).

The ranking of the Philippines moved a notch higher from 10th in 2012 as it saw a significant increase in the number of incidents involving armed groups.

According to the Global Peace Index 2014 report, the number of terrorist incidents in the Philippines rose to 499 between 2012 and 2013 from 125 in 2011.

The number of fatalities increased to 292 from 120, while the number of injured individuals climbed to 444 from 213.

“Terrorism has increased significantly in the Philippines between 2012 and 2013, with almost twice as many incidents. The number of deaths has also more than doubled in this period, increasing from 122 to 292,” the report read.

“Terrorism in the Philippines is intrinsically tied with nationalist and separatist claims by people living in provinces in southern Philippines. However, terrorism is spread across the country,” it added.

The Global Terrorism Index, a project of the research organization Institute for Economics and Peace, ranks 162 countries based on four indicators weighted over five years. The four factors considered in each country’s score are the total number of terrorist incidents in a given year, total number of fatalities, total number of injuries and total property damage.

Because of the higher number of terror incidents it experienced, the Philippines got an index score of 7.29 out of 10, up from 6.801 in the previous study.

A total of 438 cities in the Philippines suffered a terrorist attack in 2013, of which only 104 had one attack.

“The city that saw the highest number of terrorist attacks was Cotabato City in Mindanao with 11 separate attacks that killed 11 people,” the report said.

A huge majority or 83 percent of the 81 provinces of the Philippines had at least one attack last year.

“Whilst there were seven known groups that carried out a terrorist act in 2013, most activity is carried out by the New People’s Army (NPA), Moro Islamic Liberation Front and the Abu Sayyaf Group,” the report read.

The NPA claimed responsibility for 30 percent of the deaths in 2013, the report added.

Armed assault constituted nearly half of all fatalities, followed by assassinations, which represented a quarter of all fatalities.

“This differs from many other parts of the world where use of explosives and bombings are more common,” the report said.

More than half of assassination attempts or 56 percent of them were successful and claimed the lives of 103 persons, more than five times higher than in 2012.

The report said the use of such tactics and targets ”demonstrates that many of the terrorist groups in the Philippines are seeking to directly change the political system.”

Around 34 percent of deaths from terrorist attacks were targeting the government, with business leaders, private citizens and police representing between ten and 17 percent of deaths, it added.

The Global Peace Index 2014 said there were almost 10,000 terrorist attacks recorded worldwide in 2013, higher by 44 percent from 2012. The attacks resulted in nearly 18,000 deaths.

More than 80 percent of the deaths from terrorist incidents in 2013 were recorded in just five countries, namely Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

Iraq was the worst affected by terrorism last year followed by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nigeria and Syria.

Countries that got a score of zero in the index or those least affected by terrorism were Benin, Botswana, Costa Rica, Cuba, Djibouti, El Salvador, Finland, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Latvia, Lithuania, Malawi, Mauritius, Mongolia, Namibia, New Zealand, Nicaragua, North Korea, Oman, Papua New Guinea, Poland, Qatar, Romania, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Korea, Swaziland, Timor Leste, Togo, Turkmenistan, Uruguay, Vietnam and Zambia.