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Commentary of an Academic
(Copyright @ 2015 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).
Communication is a vital tool of terrorist groups which cling to radicalism. Terrorist organizations are making use of the cyberspace for their own nefarious purposes. They are using the internet to launch cyber attacks, spread propaganda, influence people, employ recruitment, and gather intelligence on potential targets.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), assumed to be the largest Muslim separatist rebel group based on armed strength, is also a militant Islamic movement in southern Mindanao, Philippines with cyber capability that represents itself through the cyberspace. Through communication linkages in a seemingly deterritorialized globe the convergence on cyberterrorism can be easily attained.
Given the premise, the essay therefore, aims to examine and understand the cyber capability of the MILF as leverage in communicating for a terroristic cause.
The MILF was founded by former Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) vice chairman Hashim Salamat, who advocated a radical review of the Muslim separatist movement. The late Salamat did not share with MNLF Chairman Nur Misuari’s moderate and politically oriented campaign. He believed more in radical action to attain the goal of creating a purely Islamic state. While the MNLF signed a peace treaty with the government in 1996, on the contrary, the MILF continued fighting.
Filipino scholars on the Bangsamoro traced back the existence of the MILF in the early 1960s when some of the students from Mindanao studied in Middle East universities, then covertly organized themselves, in preparation for the launching of an Islamic movement that would aim at liberating the “Moroland” from the clutches of Philippine colonialism and foster the revival of Islamic rule in Mindanao.
Initially, the MILF was armed and supported by the Libyan and Malaysian governments, but by the early 1990s, it has lost much of its state support. To that end, the MILF forged a tentative relationship with Al Qaeda, receiving money through Saudi charities, as well as limited military training, though while trying to build up its self-reliance.
In fact, one of the existing and active websites of the MILF is the lurawan.com, which banners the axiom of “Continuing struggle for the right of self-determination and freedom of the Bangsamoro People.” In this website, it covers news, opinions, columns, weekly editorial, documents, and guest articles, which play as platforms for internet forum among Filipino Moro and Muslims around the world who have access of the World Wide Web.
The GRP-MILF peace talks formally opened on 25 October 1999 in Sultan Kudarat, Maguindanao, with an aim of lasting peace in Mindanao through a meaningful autonomy program and a consolidation of peace efforts. However, many view that the battle fought by the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the Bangsamoro Islamic Armed Forces (BIAF), considerably marred and stalled the progress of the GRP-MILF peace process.
Fast forward in 2008, the two groups signed a joint communiqué on the Muslim ancestral domain. The Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) provides that about 700 villages in Mindanao will hold a referendum within 12 months after signing if they want to join the Muslim homeland. The signing of the agreement was temporarily set in August 2009. However, formal peace deal was scheduled to be in November 2009. However, local officials from North Cotabato ask the Supreme Court to block the signing of the agreement between GRP and MILF.
Terrorism is an activity and it is not an ideal. The MILF still posting a challenge on the Philippine Constitution and still owning the arms capable of overtaking the government and fights through a guerilla warfare and employs terrorist activities to achieve its ends.
One of the ways that the MILF has augmented its military capacity is by forging tactical alliances with as the Southeast Asian affiliate Jemaah Islamiyah (JI). The MILF began to invite members of the JI to train in its camps beginning in 1996. At the time, a number of Al Qaeda trainers were dispatched to Mindanao to train MILF and JI operatives.
Several reasons availed why the MILF continues its link with terrorist groups. First, the MILF has not been punished for these actions. Since 2001, the Philippine government has pleaded with the U.S. government not to put the MILF on the Foreign Terrorist Organization list for fear of undermining the peace process. Second, most fighters in the MILF see the JI members as their brothers and fellow mujahideen, whom they have known since Afghanistan war. Third, the MILF has low expectations for the outcome of the peace process and questions the government’s seriousness and intentions to actually implement it.
The insurgency in the Philippines is a domestic phenomenon with deep historical roots and an unsuccessful integration of the Muslim population into the Christian-dominated state. The MILF, Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), and the Rajah Suleiman Movement (RSM), are three major insurgent/terrorist actors in the country. Thus, current organizational distinctions have blurred within these groups and new alliances have come into being. With key leaders of ASG and RSM related by kinship apart from ideology. Even in factionalism within the group, the MILF leadership remains strong and in control.
Back to cyberterrorism, because of ignorance, the danger that it poses to the internet is frequently debated, and surprisingly little is known about the threat posed by terrorists’ use of the internet. To further prevent escalation on the problem of terrorism in the Philippines and Southeast Asia, the RP-US Exercise Balikatan 2009 was enforced to jointly exercise it by the AFP and the United States Armed Forces, which aims to meet RP-US obligations under the 50-year-old Mutual Defense Treaty (MDT), showcasing a long bilateral partnership in Philippine history, and to establish an effective mechanism for defense cooperation between the two countries that is being actualized.
In the Philippines, where insurgency and terrorism overlap and global terrorists often exploit the local grievances and resentments to spread ideology of enmity and violence. The resilience of the terrorist groups in the region comes from robust networking through convergence of internet networks. Thus, local-global discourse may impact and influence groups in a deterritorialized community. But consequently, the website of the MILF may not be as nefarious as expected to be from a militant Muslim organization, but proper handling of its contents may be regulated if there are certain guidelines and laws.
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