“A time to love and a time to hate,
a time for war and a time for peace.”
— Ecclesiastes 3:8
War has become a perennial threat worldwide since the beginning of time. Humanity continuously struggles for survival to preserve its identity, tribe, territory, resources, power, and ideology. On the surface, it has been an enduring battle between the self, community, organizations, and countries that advances until this digital era.
Who would have thought that the war between Israelis and Palestinians, which was seemingly just a story of fiction or fantasy I heard when I was three years old, became a reality? I realized the David versus Goliath story was concretized during the six-day war in 1967 between Israel and the surrounding Arab Nations. In May 2021, we witnessed another momentous event that unfolded the strength of Israelis against a bigger adversary with the utilization of the Iron Dome to defend their motherland.
Iron Dome is a truck-towed, multi-mission mobile air defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It analyzes and intercepts incoming threats such as counter rocket, artillery and mortar system, precision-guided missiles, cruise missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles, and air-breathing threats to protect the population and critical assets and can be strategically placed to reduce collateral damage.1
While the Israelis and Palestinians firmly adhere to their cultural inheritance, what drives them to go to war? And what is the root cause of their undying stance for the truth they firmly believe?
The unrelenting battles for political, cultural, religious, and spiritual perseverance have perennially carved the cohorts of one generation to another, which mostly causes divisiveness, hatred, frictions, trauma, and terror. When confronted by these perceived dangers and threats, some fight, others flee, flop, and befriend, and many freeze as natural human psychological stress responses.2 These wars generate transgenerational conflict and violence that cultivate struggle within the self, unconsciously piercing the body, soul, and spirit, contributing to acts of terrorism.
Today, we are confronted with different forms of terrorism that destroy life and property. Laqueur defined terrorism as “the unlawful use of the threat of violence against persons or property to further political or social objectives.”3 Terrorism has been the greatest threat to humanity, especially the proliferation of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), affecting many countries worldwide. It is noteworthy that the collective causes of terrorism and personal intentions of terrorists have continued to evolve through the years. Laqueur’s definition implies that aside from covering extremism and radicalization, terrorism is also applicable to all facets of violence and forms of abuse.3
This is true to Datt’s notion that “the increase in terrorist activities in various countries has been alarming, prompting nations and leaders to take more severe and collective actions.Rising its ugly head from time to time, terrorism has existed in one way or another throughout human history. It has reached unprecedented heights today, posing a significant danger to global peace.”4
The Philippines has been dubbed a “haven for terrorists and was identified as one of the most infested by terrorist organizations from 2010 to 2020. Here, terrorist operations and state military countermeasures have inflicted not only economic but high social costs: lives lost, damage to property, business opportunity losses, negative travel advisories, and deepening religious and ethnic tensions.”5
According to the Global Terrorism Index of 2018, the Philippines ranked 10th among 138 countries most impacted by terrorism. The report shows that the Philippines recorded the highest number of deaths from terrorism in more than a decade, with a total of 326 fatalities. The CPP-NPA-NDF committed 35% of the total deaths in 2017, responsible for 235 attacks in 204 cities resulting in 113 deaths.6 Global Terrorism Index of 2019 ranked the Philippines 9th, one notch higher, indicating that the country remains the only Southeast Asian country to be ranked in the top ten countries most impacted by terrorism. Terrorist activity in the Philippines is still dominated by the CPP-NPA-NDF, engaging against the Philippine government for five decades, causing 2,387 deaths since 1970 with 297 deaths, 343 injured, 424 encounters in 2018.7
The seizure of Marawi City in 2017 in the Southern Philippines by the combined Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) and Maute Terrorist Group affiliated with the Islamic State (IS) and how the Philippine security forces responded to the crisis provided helpful insights to policymakers in various countries. The lessons learned in the Marawi Crisis prompted different armies worldwide to examine the force structure, doctrines, operational concepts, and the breadth of activity to deal effectively with the same consequences of an urban seizure. For instance, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute study that was conducted after the Marawi Crisis highlighted that “taking a dual approach, focused on both the capability aspects of kinetic ‘hard power’ and the strategic use of ‘soft power,’ in the form of information operations and a campaign to foster goodwill and meet the population’s humanitarian needs resulted to the triumph of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP).”8
Consequently, the Government of the Republic of the Philippines, in collaboration with the United Nations (UN), has developed the National Action Program (NAP) to provide a systemic policy to counter violent extremism (CVE) in the country.
Further, to provide measures in addressing the insurgency problem, President Rodrigo R. Duterte issued Executive Order No. 70 (EO 70) that called for the institutionalization of the Whole of Nation Approach in attaining inclusive and sustainable peace, creating a National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTF-ELCAC), and directing the adoption of national peace framework in the whole country.9
However, the occurrence of the twin bombings in Jolo City on August 24, 2020, is “yet another indication of the ongoing terroristic atrocities in Southern Mindanao”10 that seriously contributed to the growing threat of global terrorism. In the Zamboanga Peninsula, security forces launched a major search for two Indonesians and a Filipino member of the Abu Sayyaf pro-IS terrorist group plotting attacks on the Zamboanga Peninsula in the Southern Philippines. “The authorities caution the public against three members of the Sulu-based ASG, suspected to have been sent out on a mission to sow fear in the Zamboanga Peninsula. The national government is offering a Php3-million reward for knowledge that could lead to the arrest and conviction of one of the suspects,” said Zamboanga City Mayor Maria Isabelle Climaco-Salazar in accompanying advisory images of the terrorist operatives.11
As a result of these unending terrorist activities, the issuance of EO 70 is reinforced by implementing the Republic Act No. (RA) 11479 or the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, which essentially repealed the Human Security Act of 2007 and improved the government’s response to terrorism. The Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) designated the CPP-NPA and NDF as terrorist organizations under ATC Resolutions Nos. 12 (9 December 2020) and 21 (23 June 2021), respectively, in accordance with paragraph 3, Section 25 in relation to Section 45 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020. Given the difficulties of prosecuting individuals for terrorism-related crimes in the Philippines, lawmakers in the Philippines have advocated for a more vital legal tool to tackle the danger posed by communists as well as IS-affiliated units such as the ASG and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF).”12
Furthermore, the CPP-NPA-NDF is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States, the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the Philippines.6 In more than 53 years, the CPP-NPA-NDF has been the primary cause of insurgency, terrorism, extortion, manipulation, deception, and destruction of government and private infrastructure that has hampered socio-economic development and political stability in the countryside. “In Southern Philippines particularly in the Zamboanga Peninsula, the Western Mindanao Regional Party Committee (WMRPC) of the CPP-NPA-NDF committed atrocities and various terroristic activities with the following statistical data from 53rd Infantry “MATAPAT” Battalion (53IB),” said Cpt. Maverick Rey Mira, Intelligence Officer of the Philippine Army’s 53IB.
CPP-NPA-NDF atrocities in ZDS from 2011 to 2021
(Source: 53IB)
This signifies that WMRPC is the primary threat confronted by Philippine government forces in Western Mindanao. It operates in the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga Sibugay, and Misamis Occidental. As of the 2nd Quarter of 2019, the WMRPC has 9 CPP-NPA-NDF groups with a total of 284 manpower and 196 firearms.13 This indicates the unceasing insurgency movement in the country that, even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the risk of terrorism in the Philippines has not subsided due to the persistent atrocities of the CPP-NPA-NDF to overthrow the government.
In Region 9, bordering the provinces of Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, the Philippine Army seized several arms caches of the CPP-NPA-NDF with high-powered firearms and subversive documents through the revelation of a former NPA terrorist.14 The military expects the strength of the CPP-NPA-NDF in Western Mindanao to dwindle further as its long-time leader was killed in a clash with government troops in Zamboanga del Norte.15
As of June 2021, the 53IB, together with the Provincial Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (PTF-ELCAC) and internal and external stakeholders, had cleared 28 barangays in Zamboanga del Sur and dismantled four regional CPP-NPA-NDF groups, paving the way for the province to be declared an insurgency-free and development-ready province by the Province of Zamboanga del Sur Sangguniang Panlalawigan, with Resolution No. 1357-2021.16
This is yet another manifestation of the collaboration and hard work of the PTF-ELCAC in Zamboanga del Sur and the local chief executives who have shown strong support for implementing the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020 and EO 70.
Indeed, the government today, in particular its armed forces, has been in constant combat against the CPP-NPA-NDF. For more than five decades, the government has been leading efforts to reach peaceful agreements with the communists to end the armed conflict and ultimately convince the CPP-NPA-NDF members to surrender. A large number heeded the government’s call for the communitst terrorist groups (CTGs) to return to the folds of the law.17
And this necessitates a thorough understanding beyond the surface of ideology and battles. What kind of freedom would they have to give up in exchange for this? My reflections have led me to believe that we must seek an additional variable to have a more comprehensive approach in implementing the government’s strategies for defeating terrorism in the name of peace and development.
In terms of the motivations in joining and staying in the CPP-NPA-NDF of former terrorists who surrendered and were captured, the political and socio-economic reasons surfaced such as:
- retribution against the government and the military who abused their parents and relatives in the past;
- influenced by family members such as parents and relatives who occupied positions in the CPP-NPA-NDF;
- the desire to elevate themselves from poverty and membership in the terrorist group offers financial and educational support for their family and children;
- the terrorist group’s justice system, ideology, and overt manners are appealing for it connects to the heart of the former terrorists who felt being marginalized living far from the government’s provision of basic services;
- threats to land and indigenous rights; and
- being persuaded to form a schema of frustration and neglect of the government, and being kidnapped and threatened left without the power to assert.
These motivations of former terrorists identified through interviews are parallel to the findings published by the Philippine Army in the Handbook of Philippine Former Rebels, containing facts and figures from 11,000 tactical interrogation reports of surrenderees covering the period of 1986 to 2010.18
In contrast, Borum cited in his study on the psychology of terrorism that an international panel of leading terrorism experts convened in Oslo to discuss the root causes of terrorism, providing research input to a high-level conference on “Fighting Terrorism for Humanity,” which was held in New York on September 22, 2003, concluded and debunked several widely held beliefs about what causes terrorism. There was widespread agreement among researchers in the said conference that poverty and terrorism have a weak and indirect relationship.19
Individually, terrorists are not typically drawn from the poorest segments of their societies. They are generally average or above-average in terms of education and socio-economic background. Poor people are more likely to participate in less severe forms of political violence, such as riots, than in terrorism. Terrorism is not particularly prevalent in the world’s poorest countries. Terrorism is more commonly associated with countries with a medium level of economic development, frequently emerging in societies marked by rapid modernization and transition. Poverty, on the other hand, has often been used as justification for social revolutionary terrorists, who may claim to represent the poor and marginalized while themselves being poor. Poverty, while not a root cause of terrorism, is a social evil that should be combated for its own sake.20
REFLECTIONS
“If you want the cooperation of humans around you,
you must make them feel they are important
— And you do that by being genuine and humble.”
— Nelson Mandela
Going beyond the surfacing features, there is so much to uncover; the underlying psychological motivations of former terrorists, which will be revealed in the succeeding chapters in this book.
The interviewed former terrorists have clearly stated that the CPP-NPA-NDF recruiters utilized these socio-economic and psychological vulnerabilities to convince them. They revealed that they were products of psychological manipulation, but the failed promises of the recruiters of providing them a better life were the turning points of their decision to give up and surrender. “The lack of food, physical and psychological fatigue, and the longing to be with our family, compelled us to surrender to the government,” Pedro, a former NPA group commander, said.
On the contrary, one of the captured terrorists continues to hold on to the CPP-NPA-NDF ideology, and imprisonment is not a hindrance. He is Jojo. His story led me to surface terrorism in the context of the human mind, emotion, and behavior, themed as the psychology of terrorist.
