A REPORT released by the US State department on Wednesday noted the drop in terror attacks and fatalities in 2016 but flagged, among other developments, the impact of the Philippines’ drug war on its anti-terror campaign.

The “Country Reports on Terrorism 2016” released by the State department on Wednesday said the total number of attacks in 2016 dropped 9% compared to 2015, driven by decreases in Afghanistan, Syria, Nigeria, Pakistan and Yemen. Fatalities caused by the attacks also fell 13%, the report said.

Terror attacks took place in 104 countries in 2016, but the majority occurred in just five countries: Iraq, Afghanistan, India, Pakistan and the Philippines.

Regarding the Philippines, the report said the country “continued to make progress against terrorism,” but “President (Rodrigo R.) Duterte’s focus on anti-narcotics and counterterrorism operations slowed progress towards shifting internal security functions from the Armed Forces of the Philippines to the Philippine National Police.”The report added the “focus on counter-narcotics has increased workload and operational tempo for security forces.”

Even as the report noted that Philippine government agencies “with a specialized counterterrorism focus… have enhanced investigative, crisis response, and border security capacity,” it also said in part that “(m)ultiple agencies have jurisdiction over counterterrorism efforts, leading to inefficient investigations and response to terrorist incidents.”

“Responsibilities between law enforcement and military units involved in counterterrorism missions are often not clear, information sharing is moderate, and command and control arrangements often depend on personal relationships between incident commanders,” the report also said.

Among the “notable incidents” in the Philippines as cited by the report are the beheadings of two Canadian hostages by Abu Sayyaf terrorists in April and June; clashes with communist guerrillas in July; a jailbreak in August instigated by the Islamic State-affiliated Maute group (identified in the report as Dawlah Islamiyah Lanao or DIL); the Sept. 2 bombing of the night market in Davao City, Mr. Duterte’s hometown; and the Maute attack on the town of Butig in Lanao del Sur on Nov. 24.

This year marks a turning point on the Philippine front, in main part due to the siege of Marawi City by the Maute group that has dragged on for two months. Commenting on the report, Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto C. Abella said in a news briefing on Thursday: “What we are doing is we really (are) confronting (terrorism), engaging the situation with the whole systems approach.”Mr. Abella cited efforts by the Duterte administration in behalf of peace and order, including talks with Muslim separatist groups in the southern region.“As they say, we can sign a hundred peace agreements but if those on the ground do not immediately feel the dividends of peace, those agreements will [not] be sustainable,” he also said. — with a report from Reuters, and Ian Nicolas P. Cigaral

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