Terrorism in the Philippines

The Philippines was once a colony of the United States. The United States gained control of the Philippine after the Spanish American War of 1898. The war was really over Cuba , the United States just got the Philippines as well as Samoa as a constellation prize. During World War II, Japan seized control of the Philippine Islands. The battle of the Philippines started on December 8, 1941 and ended on May 8, 1942. After the war we took back the Philippines. After World War II the United States and the Philippines, then a republic, signed a treaty on July 4, 1946. Even though the Philippines gained their independence in 1946, the United States still had military bases on the island, one Air Force and one Naval, until 1992. According Philippine Facts, The current population is 106 million people. The majority of the population is between the ages of 25 and 54 years old. The rural versus urban population is almost even, favoring slightly the rural population by only 2 million people. Twenty seven percent of their population falls below the poverty line. The unemployment rate of sixteen percent explains why there is such a high rate of poverty in the county. Although twenty-seven percent of the population is below the poverty line, the literacy rate for the age of fifteen and over is ninety-five percent. According to the World Fact Book provided by the CIA, eighty-three percent of the population is Catholic and five percent Muslim.

The two major terrorist groups in the Philippines are the Abu Sayyaf Group and Jemaah Islamiyah. Both of these groups operate in the southern Philippines in the Sulu archipelago and the easternmost island of Mindanao. According to Terrorism Haven: Philippines, an article from the Council on Foreign Relation...

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... April 1, 2014, from http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/asg.html

Abu Sayyaf--Abu Sayyaf Philippines Terrorist Group. (n.d.). About.com Terrorism Issues / Homeland Security. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://terrorism.about.com/od/groupsleader1/p/AbuSayyaf.htm

Philippines. (n.d.). Facts. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://country-facts.findthedata.org/l/111/Philippines

Terrorism Havens: Philippines. (2009, June 1). Council on Foreign Relations. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://www.cfr.org/philippines/terrorism-havens-philippines/p9365

The Philippines and Terrorism. (n.d.). The Philippines and Terrorism. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from http://archive.adl.org/terror/tu/tu_0404_philippines.html#.U0XNZvldWZi

The World Fact Book . (n.d.). Central Intelligence Agency. Retrieved April 1, 2014, from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rp.html