TERRORISM

DEFINITION OF TERRORISM

The term "terrorism" comes from French terrorisme, from Latin: terror, "great fear", "dread",
related to the Latin verb terrere, "to frighten".

According to Myra Williamson (2009): "The meaning of "terrorism" has undergone a

transformation. During the reign of terror a regime or system of terrorism was used as an instrument of
governance, wielded by a recently established revolutionary state against the enemies of the people.
Now the term "terrorism" is commonly used to describe terrorist acts committed by non-state or
subnational entities against a state"

According to The Arab Convention for the Suppression of Terrorism, terrorism was defined in
the convention as: Any act or threat of violence, whatever its motives or purposes, that occurs in the
advancement of an individual or collective criminal agenda and seeking to sow panic among people,
causing fear by harming them, or placing their lives, liberty or security in danger, or seeking to cause
damage to the environment or to public or private installations or property or to occupying or seizing
them, or seeking to jeopardize national resources.

According to UN Security Council Resolution 1566 (2004) gives a definition: criminal acts,
including against civilians, committed with the intent to cause death or serious bodily injury, or taking
of hostages, with the purpose to provoke a state of terror in the general public or in a group of persons
or particular persons, intimidate a population or compel a government or an international organization
to do or to abstain from doing any act.

According to UN panel, on March 17, 2005, described terrorism as any act "intended to cause
death or serious bodily harm to civilians or non-combatants with the purpose of intimidating a
population or compelling a government or an international organization to do or abstain from doing
any act.”

According to The European Union defines terrorism for legal/official purposes in Art.1 of the
Framework Decision on Combating Terrorism (2002). seriously damage a country or an international
organization where committed with the aim of: seriously intimidating a population; or unduly
compelling a Government or international organization to perform or abstain from performing any act;
or seriously destabilizing or destroying the fundamental political, constitutional, economic or social
structures of a country or an international organization.

According to United Kingdom’s Terrorism Act 2000 defines terrorism to include an act
“designed seriously to interfere with or seriously to disrupt an electronic system”.

According to The United States has defined terrorism under the Federal Criminal Code. Title 18
of the United States Code defines terrorism: as activities that involve violent… or life-threatening acts…
that are a violation of the criminal laws of the United States or of any State and… appear to be intended
(i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a government by
intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass destruction,
assassination, or kidnapping

According to Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) definition of terrorism: The unlawful use of
force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian
population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives.

According to U.S. Army Manual and Department of Defense Dictionary of Military Terms
definition terrorism is the "calculated use of unlawful violence or threat of unlawful violence to
inculcate fear. It is intended to coerce or intimidate governments or societies ... [to attain] political,
religious, or ideological goals."

According to USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 defines domestic terrorism as "activities that (A) involve
acts dangerous to human life that are a violation of the criminal laws of the U.S. or of any state; (B)
appear to be intended (i) to intimidate or coerce a civilian population; (ii) to influence the policy of a
government by intimidation or coercion; or (iii) to affect the conduct of a government by mass
destruction, assassination, or kidnapping; and (C) occur primarily within the territorial jurisdiction of
the U.S."

According to The U.S. National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) define terrorism the same as
United States Code 22 USC § 2656f(d)(2). The Center also defines a terrorist act as a "premeditated;
perpetrated by a sub-national or clandestine agent; politically motivated, potentially including religious,
philosophical, or culturally symbolic motivations; violent; and perpetrated against a non-combatant
target."
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF TERRORISM

The history of modern terrorism began with the French revolution and has evolved ever since. The most
common causes or roots of terrorism include civilizations or culture clashes, globalization, religion,
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, or the Russian invasion of Afghanistan. More personal or individual-based
reasons for terrorism are frustration, deprivation, negative identity, narcissistic rage, and/or moral
disengagement.

CHARACTERISTICS OF TERRORISM/ COMMON TERRORIST QUALITIES

Terrorism has been described as:

 The use of violence or of the threat of violence in the pursuit of political, religious, ideological or
social objectives
 Acts committed by non-state actors (or by undercover personnel serving on the behalf of their
respective governments)
 Acts reaching more than the immediate target victims and also directed at targets consisting of a
larger spectrum of society
 Both mala prohibita (i.e., crime that is made illegal by legislation) and mala in se (i.e., crime that
is inherently immoral or wrong)

FIVE TYPES OF TERRORISM:

 State-Sponsored terrorism, which consists of terrorist acts on a state or government by a state or

government.
 Dissent terrorism, which are terrorist groups which have rebelled against their government.
Committed by non-state movements and groups against governments, ethno-national groups,
religious groups and other perceived enemies
 Terrorists and the Left and Right Wing, which are groups rooted in political ideology.
 Religious terrorism, which are terrorist groups which are extremely religiously motivated
 Criminal Terrorism, which are terrorists acts used to aid in crime and criminal profit.
STRUCTURES OF TERRORIST GROUPS:

Terrorist groups are organized like a pyramid.

Cell- consists of leaders. Are the top are a few leaders who make the
overall policy and plans

Active cadre- Below them is a larger group of terrorists who actually

carry out attacks these often specialize a particular activities such as
intelligence or surveillance, bomb- making or communications.

Active Supporters- Beyond the cell is composed of the active

supporters, people who provide intelligence and warning, weapons,
and supplies, communications, transportations, and safe houses

Passive Supporters- Lower level is the diffuse groups of passive

supporters, people who agree with the goals of the terrorist group, help
spread their ideas, and provide money and other support

MOTIVATION OF TERRORISTS

1) Rational Motivation: May have considered other methods for reaching a particular goal (but too
much risk, or not effective) When an individual makes a choice after weighing the
consequences and rewards of an action or behavior. For example, a terrorist thinks like a
business person. The terrorist looks at all options and takes action on the choice that is most cost
effective and beneficial to his/her cause.
2) Psychological Motivation: Arises from the individual terrorist's personal dissatisfaction with a
government or political system. Antisocial behaviors create “US” vs. “THEM”. Believe that
everyone outside their own group is EVIL
3) Cultural Motivation: May join out of fear, important cultural or religious values are under
threat. Protection of culture is a duty *other people of that culture may not support their
decision. Cultures shape values and motivate people to take action

The main reason is the strong necessity to be included into some social group.

- In most of the cases terrorists are people from one-parent families.

- People, who have lost a job or never could get one.
 - Those with little education join a terrorist group:
- out of boredom;
- out of a desire to have an adventure in pursuit of a cause they regard as just;
- out of a desire to use their special skills ( bomb-making skills).

The more educated youths may be motivated by genuine political or religious convictions

EXAMPLES OF TERRORIST ATTACKS

 Hostages
 Car bombs
 Assassinations
 Shootings and other assaults
 Hijacking of aircrafts
 Kidnappings
 Mail/package bombs
 Suicide bombers

These events in and of themselves are not terrorism. They are just techniques that terrorists use

CAUSES OF TERRORISM/ CAUSES OF BEING TERRORISTS

 belief in violence
 religious extremism
 poverty and economic problems
 political instability

PREVENTION OF TERRORISM

 Primary prevention is education.

 Creating awareness among people against terrorism.
 Increasing security around the nation.
 The one and only strength against terrorism is unity of people.
 By protecting and mobilizing civil society.
 By eliminating the root of Terrorism.
BRIEF HISTORY OF TERRORISM

In terms of targeting, many of the tactical means and methods of modern terrorism have, until
relatively recently, followed those utilized between States in their armed conflicts inter se. It has been
argued specifically that, a century ago, terrorist codes on targeting victims closely resembled
professional military codes, in that they respected the distinction between soldiers and officials on the
one hand, and innocent civilians on the other (e.g., the targeted assassination of Archduke Franz
Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914) (Walzer, 1977, pp. 197-234). This was the case from
approximately the mid-nineteenth century onwards, when increasingly industrialized weaponry
facilitated a lack of targeting, in the sense that killing the enemy became more indiscriminate and
deadly. The industrialized and indiscriminate means and methods of warfare utilized during the two
"total wars" of the twentieth century (e.g., in widespread disregard of the principle of distinction)
effectively taught those who would become post-war revolutionary terrorists, and who also would
adopt more irregular weapons and forms of fighting, such as urban guerrilla warfare. In the
contemporary world, indiscriminate weaponry (e.g., high-level bombing capacities, weapons of mass
destruction (WMDs), and so on) is a recurring feature.

In terms of terrorist strategy, a useful way to conceptualize the evolution of modern terrorism as
a resort to revolutionary violence is provided by David Rapoport's influential concept of the "waves" of
terrorism (‘The Four Waves of Terrorism'). For example, one wave is the late nineteenth century/early
twentieth century "anarchist wave". Another is the "anti-colonial wave" (starting with the post-World
War I political principle of self-determination, e.g., the Aaland Islands arbitration in 1921, and its
violent evolution into a legal right after World War II, examples being the Algerian Civil War and the
Vietnam War).

In turn, the tactics employed in each of these waves often mirrored those utilized between States
during armed conflict, not least because demobilized soldiers throughout the ages have returned to
their homes at the end of a war fully trained tactically to utilize force, while the name of each terrorist
wave reflects its dominant strategic goals. The wave theory further reflects that terrorist groups rise and
fall, that they can dissolve when no longer capable of inspiring others to continue with violent
resistance to authority, to violently redress one or other grievance, or to protest violently against a lack
of political concessions. This point also suggests that terrorism and its motivations are clearly impacted
by the conditions of and changes in social and political cultures.
 In contrast, Parker and Sitter (2016) posit that violent terrorist situations occur around the
world not so much in waves, but because terrorist actors are motivated differentially through four goal-
oriented strains: socialism, nationalism, religious extremism or exclusionism. These underlying
motivators are not chronologically sequential, i.e., one strain dies and a new one arises. Instead, they can
work in parallel, and can occasionally overlap, to motivate different terrorist movements according to
their needs.

The person generally recognised as the first terrorist was the 26-year-old social revolutionary
Vera Zasulich, who shot the Governor of St Petersburg in 1878 to protest the Russian state’s repression
of domestic political protest.

In its agitation for a social revolution in Russia in line with the French Revolution, the Russian
revolutionary movement until this point only used non-violent “propaganda by the word”. Zasulich’s
shot broke the taboo against using violence to communicate political messages. Its worldwide publicity
showed political activists and groups a new form of political protest, a spectacular and frightening
“propaganda by the deed”.

Similar assassination attempts were first used against European governments and politicians,
but by the early 1900s the new political tactic had spread to all the world’s inhabited continents, known
in India as “the Russian method” and in China as “assassinationism”.

Products of Western modernity

The new violent political practice was soon institutionalised with the emergence of organised
terrorist groups. First came Narodnaya Volya (The People’s Will), a group of Russian social
revolutionaries and self-proclaimed terrorists, who in 1881 succeeded in assassinating Tsar Alexander
II with a dynamite bomb

The Russian terrorists’ struggle against the repressive Russian state was to some degree accepted
and even admired by several Western observers. Mark Twain, for example, declared that if the Russian
“government cannot be overthrown otherwise than by dynamite, then thank God for dynamite!”

These first modern terrorists were like present day terrorists in that their actions were made
possible through the use of industrial products of Western modernity. Spectacular violence was
executed using commercial technologies such as industrially manufactured revolvers and Alfred
Nobel’s science-based dynamite invention. Terrifying political messages were spread internationally
through news articles transmitted by transatlantic telegraph cables and printed by commercial mass
media companies on steam-powered printing presses.

Also, these first examples of people being labelled “terrorists” were almost exclusively reserved
for acts of non-Western terrorism. When terrorist tactics were used against governments and civilians
in Western Europe or the USA – by Fenians and anarchists or anti-colonial separatists in British India,
for example – terrorism was generally not mentioned. Instead, such violence was more often described
in terms of outrage or assassination.

This is despite the fact that these groups used the same terrorist tactics and technologies as the
Russian terrorists. The new terminology was apparently reserved for the Russian revolutionary cause. It
was only after World War I that these other forms of terrorism in and against Western governments
started to more generally be labelled as terrorism.

This is the genuine starting point for the more widely recognised form of violent political
communication that we today know and describe as terrorism.

LIST EXAMPLES OF TERRORIST ORGANIZATION

1. Abdullah Azzam Brigades - is a Sunni Islamist militant group, and al-Qaeda's branch in Lebanon. The
group, which began operating in 2009, was founded by Saudi Saleh Al-Qaraawi and has networks in
various countries,[10] mainly in Egypt, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, the Gaza Strip and Lebanon.

2. Abu Sayyaf - is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni
Islam. It is based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines,
where for more than four decades, Moro groups have been engaged in an insurgency seeking to make
Moro Province independent. The group is considered violent[27] and was responsible for the
Philippines' worst terrorist attack, the bombing of Superferry 14 in 2004, which killed 116 people.
3. Aden-Abyan Islamic Army - is an Islamist militant group based in southern Yemen, led by Zein al-
Abideen al-Mehdar (also known as Abu El-Hassan El-Mohader). The group has been designated as a
terrorist organization by Bahrain, Canada and the United Kingdom.

4. Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (AHIF) - was a charity foundation, based in Saudi Arabia. Under
various names it had branches in Afghanistan, Albania, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Comoros, Ethiopia, India,
Kenya, Malaysia, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, Tanzania, and the United States, and "at its
height" raised between $40 and $50 million a year in contributions worldwide.

5. Al-Itihaad al-Islami - was an Islamist militant group in Somalia. It is considered a terrorist

organisation by the United States, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

6. Al-Mourabitoun - was an African militant jihadist organisation formed by a merger between Ahmed
Ould Amer, a.k.a. Ahmed al-Tilemsi's Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Mokhtar
Belmokhtar's Al-Mulathameen.

7. Al-Nusra Front or Jabhat al-Nusra - Formed in 2012, in November of that year The Washington Post
described al-Nusra as "the most aggressive and successful" of the rebel forces. In December 2012, the
United States Department of State designated it a foreign terrorist organization, and in April 2013, it
became the official Syrian branch of al-Qaeda.

8. Al-Qaeda - "The Base", "The Foundation", alternatively spelled al-Qaida and al-Qa'ida) is a militant
Sunni Islamist multi-national terrorist organization founded in 1988 by Osama bin Laden, Abdullah
Azzam, and several other Arab volunteers during the Soviet–Afghan War.

9. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb - is an Islamist militant organization (of al-Qaeda) which aims to
overthrow the Algerian government and institute an Islamic state.[14] To that end, it is currently
engaged in an anti-government campaign.

10. Ansar Dine - is a militant Islamist group led by Iyad Ag Ghaly, one of the most prominent leaders of
the Tuareg Rebellion (1990–1995) who is suspected of having ties to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb,
and is led by his cousin Hamada Ag Hama [fr]. Ansar Dine seeks to impose strict Sharia law across Mali.
The group's first action was in March 2012. The organization is not to be confused with the Sufi
movement Ançar Dine, started in Southern Mali by Chérif Ousmane Haidara in the 1980s, which is
fundamentally opposed to militant Islamism. Ansar Dine is opposed to Sufi shrines.

LIST OF TERRORIST INCIDENTS IN THE WORLD

1972
Munich massacre

 Location: Munich, West Germany

 Killed: 17
 Perpetrator: Black September

1974
Birmingham pub bombings

 Location: The Mulberry Bush and Tavern in the Town, Birmingham, England
 Killed: 21 (182 injuries)
 Perpetrator: Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA)

1977
Las Palmas Airport bombing

 Location: Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Spain

 Killed: 0 (The chain of events caused by the bombing caused 583 people to die at a nearby
airport when two planes collided on the runway where they had been diverted, not from the
bombing itself)
 Perpetrator: Canary Islands Independence Movement (CIIM)

1978
Cinema Rex fire

 Location: Iran
 Killed: 420+
 Perpetrator: Unknown

1980[
Bologna massacre

 Location: Bologna Centrale railway station, Italy

 Killed: 85 (200+ injuries)
 Perpetrator: Nuclei Armati Rivoluzionari (NAR, Armed Revolutionary Nuclei)

1985
Air India Flight 182 bombing
  Location: Atlantic Ocean
 Killed: 329
 Perpetrator: Babbar Khalsa

1988
Pan Am Flight 103

 Location: Lockerbie, Scotland

 Killed: 270
 Perpetrator: Muammar Gaddafi

1990
1990 massacre of Sri Lankan Police officers

 Killed: 600–740
 Location: Eastern Province, Sri Lanka
 Perpetrator: Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam

1993
1993 World Trade Center bombing

 Killed: 6 (injuries approx. 1000+)

 Location: One World Trade Center (North Tower), Lower Manhattan, New York City, US
 Perpetrator: Ramzi Yousef, Eyad Ismoil

1993 Bombay bombings

 Killed: 250+ ( injured 1000+)

 Location: Bombay Stock Exchange, Zhaveri Bazar, Shiv Sena Bhavan

1995
Tokyo subway sarin attack

 Killed: 13 (injuries estimated to be in between 1,000 and 6,000)

 Location: Tokyo, Japan
 Perpetrators: Aum Shinrikyo (Ikuo Hayashi, Kenichi Hirose Toru Toyoda, Masato Yakayama and
Yasuo Hayashi)

Oklahoma City bombing

 Killed: 168
  Location: United States
 Perpetrators: Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols

1998
US Embassy Bombings

 Killed: 224 (4000+ injured)

 Location: Kenya, Tanzania
 Perpetrators: Al-Qaeda

Omagh bombing

 Killed: 29 (220+ injured)

 Location: Omagh, Northern Ireland
 Perpetrators: Real Irish Republican Army (IRA)

1999
Russian apartment bombings

 Killed: 367
 Location: Russia
 Perpetrators:
o Ibn Al-Khattab, Achemez Gochiyayev and accomplices, according to rulings by
Russian courts
o Federal Security Service and GRU, according to David Satter, Alexander
Litvinenko, Yuri Felshtinsky and some other researchers

2000
Rizal Day bombings

 Deaths: 22
 Location: Manila, Philippines
 Perpetrator: Jemaah Islamiyah and Abu Sayyaf

2001
September 11 attacks

 Deaths: 2,996 (2,977 + 19 hijackers. 2595 people from the world trade centers, 125 people
from the Pentagon, and 256 people from the planes)
 Location: United States
  Perpetrator: Al-Qaeda

2002
2002 Bali Bombings

 Deaths: 204
 Location: Indonesia
 Perpetrator: Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Qaeda

Moscow theater hostage crisis

 Deaths: 130
 Location: Russia

2004
Beslan school siege

 Deaths: 334
 Location: Russia
 Perpetrator: Riyad-us Saliheen Brigade of Martyrs

2004 Madrid train bombings

 Deaths: 191
 Location: Spain
 Perpetrator: al-Qaeda

2004 SuperFerry 14 bombing

 Deaths: 116
 Location: Philippines
 Perpetrator: Abu Sayyaf

2005
7/7 bombings, London

 Deaths: 56
 Location: London, England
 Perpetrator: al-Qaeda

2005 Sharm El Sheikh bombings

 Deaths: 88
  Location: Sharm El Sheikh, Sinai, Egypt
 Perpetrator: al-Qaeda

2007
2007 Yazidi communities bombings

 Deaths: 796
 Location: Iraq
 Perpetrator: Unknown

2007 Glasgow Airport Attack

 Deaths: 1 (Perpetrator)
 Location: Glasgow, Scotland
 Perpetrator: Bilal Abdullah, Kafeel Ahmed

2008
2008 Christmas massacres

 Deaths: 860+
 Location: Democratic Republic of the Congo
 Perpetrator: Lord's Resistance Army

2008 Mumbai attacks

 Deaths: 166
 Location: India
 Perpetrator: Lashkar-e-Taiba

2011
2011 Norway attacks

 Deaths: 77 (319+ injured)

 Location: Oslo, Norway & Utøya, Norway
 Perpetrators: Anders Behring Breivik

2013
2013 Boston Marathon Bombings

 Deaths: 3 (264 injured)

 Location: Boston, Massachusetts
  Perpetrators: Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev (brothers)

Westgate shopping mall attack

 Deaths: 71 (175 injured)

 Location: Nairobi, Kenya
 Perpetrators: Al-Shabaab terrorists

2014
Camp Speicher massacre

 Deaths: 1,700
 Location: Iraq
 Perpetrator: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
 Deaths: 212
 Location: Nigeria
 Perpetrator: Boko Haram
 Deaths: 300
 Location: Nigeria
 Perpetrator: Boko Haram
 Deaths: 255
 Location: Iraq
 Perpetrator: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant
 Deaths: 144
 Location: Pakistan
 Perpetrator: Taliban
 Deaths: 1,566
 Location: Iraq
 Perpetrator: Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant

CURRENT ROGUE STATES

George W. Bush

- The term "rogue state" goes back to the US government, which used it to describe aggressive
states that threaten either the USA itself or its allies. Although the term was new, the concept of the
exclusion of dangerous nations was introduced in 1994. The first countries to be considered "Rogue
States" were North Korea, Cuba, Iran, Iraq and Libya.
- Currently, 4 countries are considered rogue states. The definition of the rogue state is
determined exclusively by the US government and mainly includes countries that support terrorism or
use or develop weapons of mass destruction.

- The fact that the list of rogue states is not internationally binding is also apparent from the
reasons for the inclusion and deletion of individual nations. For example, Cuba was listed as a rogue
state from 1982 to 2015 and was only removed from the list because diplomatic relations were
resumed. Other nations had nothing to do with this. Also, in the case of Libya (2006), the fact that
Muammar al-Gaddafi publicly spoke out against terrorism alone was enough to remove it. North Korea
was not considered a rogue state from 2008 to 2017 because the US assumed that North Korea had
ended its nuclear program.

FORMER ROGUE STATES

- CUBA

- IRAQ

- LIBYA

FAST FACTS: TERRORISM IN THE PHILIPPINES

 While not so known to many, the Philippines is rising as the eastern province of the Islamic
State (ISIS).
 By the tail end of the first month of 2019, an Indonesian couple working with extremist group
Abu Sayyaf carried out a devastating suicide bombing in a Jolo cathedral that killed at least 23.
Months later, authorities named the first Filipino suicide bomber in a twin-blast incident in
Sulu.
 Even the coronavirus pandemic could not stop extremists from carrying out jihadist missions; as
yet another suicide attack happened in Jolo in August 2020.
 These are only some of the recent bombings in a string of attacks in the Philippines over the
years.
 Despite local and international efforts to address the threat, terrorism persists – and the
Philippines remain to be very much a part of the global terror network.
 Here are some facts about the growth of terrorism here.
 Attacks in recent history

Below is a list of some of the biggest terror attacks that have occurred in the country before the
administration of President Rodrigo Duterte:
Extremist groups, mainly the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), and
Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) have claimed responsibility for these attacks.

 Mindanao suffered – and continues to suffer – the most from terror.

 From 2000 to 2012, the region witnessed 25 bombing and grenade attacks. Soccsksargen,
the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (now replaced by the larger Bangsamoro
Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao or BARMM), and Zamboanga had the deadliest
bombing attacks during this period. (READ: Mindanao bombs: over 300 killed in 12 yrs)
 Even President Rodrigo Duterte's hometown has not been spared, as shown by the Davao
night market bombing in 2016. Fourteen were killed and 60 were injured.
 In 2018, a foreigner blew himself up in Lamitan City, Basilan, killing at least 10.
 On January 27, 2019, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Mount Carmel in Jolo was bombed by
an Indonesian couple. The blast killed at least 23 people and left more than 100 injured.
 On June 28, the police and military confirmed the “first suicide bombing by a Filipino” in
Sulu. The bomber's name was Norman Lasuca.
 At the height of the coronavirus pandemic in August 2020, back-to-back explosions rocked
downtown Jolo, killing at least 14 people and injuring 75 others.
 The attacker was one of two Filipino women allegedly planning a suicide bombing in late
June, whom soldiers tried to capture in an intelligence mission. The 4 soldiers were killed by
cops – an incident the Senate is currently investigating as of posting. (READ: Women of the
Eastern Caliphate: Hiding in plain sight)

Marawi siege impact

 It is the May 2017 Marawi siege however that has had long-term consequences, so far. The
instability that followed prompted Duterte to implement martial law in Mindanao.
 The battle of Marawi is the Philippine military’s longest and bloodiest in recent history,
running for 5 months. The Maute Group even trained children to fight.
 According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), 353,921
families were displaced at the height of the siege.
 Many of the 2,261 deaths in the BARMM in 2017 were due to the siege. (READ: Martial law
led to 2018 drop in violence in Muslim Mindanao – study)
 With a slow rise from ground zero, Marawi City is still on the road to recovery more than
two years after the siege. By February 2019, financial aid for the city’s rehabilitation
reached nearly P42 billion, according to Business World.
 Numbers from the UNHCR as of August 2020 show that more than 120,000 individuals are
still displaced due to the Marawi conflict.
 Laws and prevention
 The Human Security Act, signed in 2007, outlined the state’s responsibility in protecting the
country from acts of terrorism.
 In July 2020, Duterte signed into law the controversial Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which
repealed the Human Security Act. The law puts vague definitions of what constitutes
terrorism, prompting rights groups to warn it could be used to label the government’s
critics as terrorists.
 Several groups have gone to the Supreme Court to challenge the constitutionality of the
2020 Anti-Terrorism Law.