By Richa Noriega
Despite a slight decline in the number of terror-related deaths and incidents, the Philippines ranked ninth in the 2019 Global Terrorism Index (GTI) and remains the only Southeast Asian country among the 10 countries most impacted by terrorism.
The index report produced by the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) released on Wednesday ranked 163 countries, which covers 99.7 percent of the world’s population.
According to the report, terror-related deaths in the Philippines in 2018 declined by nine percent to 297 deaths. Terror-related incidents also decreased by 13 percent from 486 in 2017 to 424 in 2018.
“Terror groups were most active on the southern island of Mindanao with the resurgence of the New People’s Army (NPA) and Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)-affiliated groups. The government’s response to the terrorist threat has been hampered by limited coordination, lack of capacity, and geographical challenges,” the report said.
The report measures the number of deaths, injuries, property destruction, and gross domestic product (GDP) losses from terrorism.
Afghanistan is the country most affected by terrorism, followed by Iraq and Nigeria.
The other countries in the top ten are Syria, Pakistan, Somalia, India, Yemen, and Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The seventh edition of the GTI provides a comprehensive summary of the key global trends and patterns of terrorism in the last 50 years. It covered the period from the beginning of 1970 to the end of 2018, and placed an emphasis on trends since 2014, corresponding with the start of the fall of ISIL.