Terrorism in the Philippines

Legal definition

Terrorism is a crime under the Human Security Act of 2007 and describe such acts as causing "widespread and extraordinary fear and panic among the populace". The first group to be officially listed as a terrorist organization under the law is the Abu Sayyaf on September 10, 2015 by the Basilan provincial court.

List of terrorist incidents in the Philippines

Since January 2000 radical Islamist groups and Islamist separatist forces in the Philippines have carried out over 40 major bombings against civilians and civilian property, mostly in the southern regions of the country around Mindanao, Basilan, Jolo and other nearby islands. Numerous bombings have also been carried out in and around Metro Manila, though several hundred kilometres from the conflict in the southern regions, due to its political importance. In the period from 2000 to 2007 attacks killed nearly 400 Filipino civilians and injured well over 1500 more, more casualties than caused by bombings and other attacks in Indonesia, Morocco, Spain, Turkey, or Britain during the same period.

Public transport and other gathering places, such as street markets, have been the favoured bombing targets, however large-scale abductions and shootings have also been carried out by the groups, predominantly by Abu Sayyaf and the Rajah Solaiman Movement, two groups that had claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.

For brevity, the definition of terrorism used is drawn from the United Nations General Assembly condemnation:

"Criminal acts intended or calculated to provoke a state of terror in the general public, a group of persons or particular persons for political purposes are in any circumstance unjustifiable, whatever the considerations of a political, philosophical, ideological, racial, ethnic, religious or any other nature that may be invoked to justify them."