Understanding Suicide Bombers and Foreign Fighters in the Philippines

Photo from Philippine Star

By Chester B Cabalza

Blogger's Notes:
Commentary of an Academic 
(Copyright @ 2019 by Chester B Cabalza. All Rights Reserved).

With doubts surrounding the jihadi terrorist bombings at the Roman Catholic cathedral in Jolo last 27 January 2019, the Philippine police and military forces boost suicide theory, killing at least 20 churchgoers and 111 people near the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel. The use of improvised explosive devices containing ammonium nitrate pipe bombs that exploded inside and outside the church may be similar to the tactic used by terrorists in the 2002 Bali blasts that ebbed fear by inflicting additional casualties to first responders in a widespread act of violence to Filipinos in southern Mindanao. 

Subscribing to forensic science, pieces of body parts of the alleged suicide attackers were strewn all over the entrance of the cathedral as far as 50 meters away from the door of the house of worship. An Indonesian couple were believed to have detonated the bombs separately, well-planned that suspects vigorously executed the attack to Christian believers and first responders simultaneously. Last 31 July 2018, the nearest example of a similar incident happened in Lamitan City in Basilan, where Moroccan ISIS member Abu Khatir Al-Maghribi took the responsibility as part of his martyrdom operation, killing 10 civilians and armed troops but local authorities debunked the suicide bombing angle.

The possible motive for the recent attack recreated a political backlash after the plebiscite of a new autonomous region in southern Philippines to quell secessionism, although the dominant ethnic Tausug in the Sulu province rejected the autonomy deal. In the Lamitan blast last year, the alleged suicide bombing occurred during the campaign of a rival Maguindanao ethnic group for the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s peace process advancing the acceptance of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro and signing of the Bangsamoro Organic Law. 

The Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) which claims links with ISIS and prides itself an ally of the global terrorist network group has tendency to stage jihadist militancy and piracy following the Wahhabi doctrine. For more than four decades, the ASG has sowed terror in Visayas and Mindanao islands of the Philippines that carried out bombings and other felonies including kidnappings, extortions and rape. Despite the prevalence of terrorism in the archipelagic Southeast Asian country, preventing and countering violent extremism has not yet been minimized, alluding to the country’s top ranking position among countries most affected by terrorism in the Asia-Pacific region.  

Despite the prevalence of terrorism and violent extremism in the Philippines, accounting for 11 percent of Muslims in the country, early Spanish accounts documented juramentado that saw suicide attacks called parang-sabil, as part of jihad in the Moros’ Islamic faith in southern Philippines. However, the Moro juramentado were acted out during the colonial periods against the Spaniards, Americans, and Japanese in their fight for anti-colonialism and Western hegemony. This apparent tradition may also be construed to the fact that even if Filipinos practice juramentado, there is no single account that would prove Filipino perpetrators committing to practice suicide bombing especially if the victims are Filipinos themselves. Nonetheless, if there are cases of suicide attackers and bombers in Mindanao, these are all foreign terrorists and Muslim converts. Relatively, religious extremism has not yet fully penetrated the Islamic doctrines in the Philippines.

Certainly the foreign fighter threat has tremendously evolved. It has morphed into a global network that has turned into a cottage industry for small terror group actors. This vivid and wide-range networking of foreign fighters fostered by global religious brotherhood has infiltrated the online recruitment and tactical operations of terror clusters, notwithstanding the financial and intelligence support of each group. Ferocious female and children foreign warriors are used in this strategic warfare redounding to their own legal advantage for which the presence of local and international laws can protect them from felony.

This silverlining in understanding terrorism has brought a mix of socioeconomic marginalization, political corruption, and ignorance towards foreign fighter returnees which has created a time bomb for the Philippines, particularly in addressing the escalating security threat on terrorism and violent extremism. Hence, the presence of foreign suicide bombers and fighters in the Philippine soil hinders the elusive peace hoped for by Christians, Muslims and the indigenous peoples in Mindanao.

Finally, the holistic effort for the reintegration process of foreign suicide bombers and fighters should bring synergy of efforts from different stakeholders including the government, civil society and the local community. Education and equal employment opportunities should be addressed to widen the awareness of Filipino citizens drawn into poverty and ignorance. The Philippine government should also consider the maritime border security along its southern coastlines that would determine who and what is allowed and denied in access to the state’s territory that creates a confluence of actions from various stakeholders in upholding its territorial integrity and national sovereignty.