Patterns of Global Terrorism 1996 - Philippines

The Philippine Government scored a major triumph when it concluded a peace agreement with the Moro National Liberation Front, the largest Muslim rebel group, ending its 24-year insurgency. Negotiations with the second-largest insurgent group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), proceeded slowly, however, and clashes continued between MILF and government forces in the southern Philippines. The MILF and the smaller, extremist Abu Sayyaf Group are both fighting for a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Earlier in the year, a wave of bombings in Mindanao was attributed to Muslim extremists; several of the attacks targeted Christian churches. For the most part, these attacks have been limited to the southern Philippines, but in February a grenade attack in the Makati business district of Manila wounded four persons and damaged the local headquarters of both Shell and Citibank. Police suspect the Abu Sayyaf Group. Other terrorist groups in the Philippines include the Alex Boncayao Brigade, which claimed responsibility for the assassination of a former provincial vice governor in June 1996, and the New People's Army. These three groups were believed to have been planning attacks during the APEC conference, held in Manila in November; a bomb was discovered and defused at Ninoy Aquino International Airport that week. No group claimed responsibility, and no arrests were made.

The successful prosecution in the United States of Ramzi Ahmed Yousef on charges of plotting to bomb US passenger jets in Asia and the Pacific was due largely to outstanding cooperation from the Philippine Government. At the same time, persons convicted of terrorist acts in the Philippines are among those eligible to apply for amnesty under a national reconciliation program set up for former rebels who committed crimes in pursuit of political objectives.

In February the Philippines hosted the Baguio Conference, an international conference on counterterrorism. The 20 nations represented there, including the United States, issued a communique expressing their collective commitment to combat terrorism in several important ways.