Confronting political terrorism: A global menace

I represented the Philippines at the “Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political Terrorism” – a very well-attended summit hosted by US State Secretary Marco Rubio at the State Department with political leaders, diplomats, law enforcement officials and experts from over 65 countries who recognize the serious and growing danger posed by politically motivated terrorism not only on institutions but the people themselves and even their way of life.

During the high-level discussion on “Best Practices, Information Sharing and Operational Cooperation to Counter Far Left Terrorism” where I was a panelist, I had the opportunity to share the Philippines’ experience in dealing with one of Asia’s longest-running communist insurgencies led by the Communist Party of the Philippines and its armed wing, the New People’s Army – an entity that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.

For more than five decades, many Filipinos have suffered from atrocities committed by this terrorist group. But while its armed capabilities have been substantially weakened through several initiatives that include sustained security operations, development in conflict-affected communities, reintegration of former rebels and other programs wherein significant progress have been made, the focus should extend beyond developments in remote areas of the country because the communist threat has evolved over the years and has taken on transnational dimensions.

Simply put, the line between local insurgency and international terrorism has been blurred, with activities no longer limited by geographic boundaries and territorial borders because of modern communications technology and cyberspace, giving malign actors global reach and allowing them to engage in recruitment (not only of locals but even foreign citizens), financing, facilitation, propaganda and other activities, with their support networks operating across jurisdictions.

For instance, one country may undertake the recruitment, another may take care of travel preparations, while another may handle financing. This was exactly the point made by Secretary Rubio in his keynote address: “Today’s far-left terrorists can raise money in one country; they can host their communications in a second country; they can receive training in a third country; they can recruit militants in a fourth country and then together strike a target in a fifth country.”

This reality therefore leaves us with these important questions: How are individuals in one country drawn toward an armed terrorist organization operating in another? What networks facilitate their recruitment and travel? How are these activities financed? And how can our governments identify warning signs before political radicalization crosses the line into participation in, or material support for, terrorist violence?

No single country can answer these questions alone. This is why the Philippines places particular value and importance on stronger intelligence and law-enforcement information sharing, financial intelligence cooperation and appropriate exchanges of travel-related information among international partners. We need to band together to curtail political terrorism which is on the rise globally, and we certainly welcome deeper cooperation with partners and nations that are also experiencing the scourge of terrorism to better understand and disrupt transnational recruitment, financing and facilitation networks that provide unlawful support to designated terrorist organizations.

The Philippines has long been coordinating with law enforcement agencies of the United States and like-minded countries in fighting terrorism and thwarting the activities of extremists. One of the most important case studies in global counterterrorism coordination involves an assassination plot against Pope John Paul II by al-Qaeda linked Ramzi Yousef in January 1995. The plot was uncovered by authorities several days before the pontiff’s visit to the Philippines when a fire accidentally broke out at an apartment in Manila where Yousef and his conspirator, Abdul Hakim Murad, were working on a bomb.

Responding members of the Philippine National Police found chemical components for explosives, a priest’s cassock and a laptop – enough to trigger alarm bells. Authorities were able to crack encrypted files that unveiled a massive plot codenamed “Bojinka” to assassinate the pope, blow up 11 commercial planes flying from Asia to the United States and crash a plane into the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia.

An international manhunt was launched for Yousef (already wanted by the US for the bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993) with Philippine government authorities sharing data from the laptop and vital forensic evidence (such as a partial fingerprint found in the Manila apartment) with the FBI and the CIA. Four weeks later, Yousef was apprehended in February 1995 in Islamabad, Pakistan.

The Philippines has made considerable progress in weakening the domestic armed threat through a comprehensive whole-of-government and whole-of-nation approach. However, the evolving transnational dimensions of recruitment, financing, facilitation, travel and support networks increasingly require cooperation beyond Philippine jurisdiction.

No one country sees the entire network. Our respective governments may each hold different pieces of the picture. By connecting those pieces – and ensuring that our cooperation follows the networks – we can identify emerging threats earlier and act more effectively to disrupt them.

Clearly, we should make better use of existing bilateral, regional and multilateral mechanisms to connect our intelligence, law enforcement, border and financial authorities and to share information on emerging trends and networks. The Philippines stands ready to share the lessons learned from more than five decades of confronting politically motivated violence. We also stand ready to learn from the experiences of our partners.

As a democratic nation that is determined to remain free and uphold its sovereignty, the Philippines will continue to cooperate and walk shoulder-to-shoulder with partners and like-minded countries, secure in the knowledge that in the fight against political terrorism, we do not stand alone.

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