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A bit up this thread I posted some observations from time spent in Wao, Lanao del Sur, a town with a Cristian settler majority and Maranao Muslim minority, at the edge of the Central Mindanao...

I don't see ISIS as a major factor... certainly the more radical factions (not all of them young) identify with ISIS, but if ISIS wasn't there they'd identify with something else. If this agreement...

I agree on the issue of targeting individuals. In this case the individual concerned may have been of less value than some believe, as argued by Sidney Jones, one of the more credible analysts...

This has been an ongoing effort for some time, but at this point has about a snowball's chance on Taft Avenue in April of passing. Legislators have lined up against it since the Mamasapano incident,...

The reports do not appear to be exaggerated. Official counts vary but range around 50 dead. The MILF is saying 64 PNP dead have been recovered:
...

This story is still evolving and details are sketchy, but...

Apparently a Manila-based team from the Philippine National Police Special Action Force (sort of a combined SWAT/Hostage...

Captain Cook wouldn't have had the incident all over the global media.

Last April the US and the Philippines signed an "Enhanced Defense Cooperation Agreement" providing the US a substantially...

This hit the social media mill yesterday, in the news today:

www.nytimes.com/2014/10/14/world/asia/member-of-us-military-questioned-in-death-of-filipino.html?smid=pl-share&_r=0



Additional...

The GRP/MILF peace process always looked to have some serious issues, but it's looking more and more as if it may be sunk before it really gets started, a casualty of Manila politics. Basically,...

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/27/world/asia/us-will-disband-terrorism-task-force-in-philippines.html?smid=tw-share&_r=0


About time, IMO: the effort has accomplished as much as it was ever going...

There is officially a deal:

http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/354395/news/nation/historic-peace-deal-with-milf-begins-rough-road-to-law-and-order

Where that leads is another question...

Yesterday's Jolo rally concluded peacefully, although, as one participant put it:



Hopefully nobody moves against individual leaders and participants, and they can press on and gather some...

This group:

https://www.facebook.com/BASSAKAO

Is entirely local, and has received little local and no foreign press coverage that I've seen. Today, though, they are doing the unthinkable and...

Just back from some time in Lanao del Sur, one of those places the Embassy tells you to never ever even think about going. Wasn't there for research, or to reach any deep conclusions, but there was...

Manila might be part of a solution if it chose to be, but the will isn't there.

Mindanao's problems are irretrievably connected to the scourge of big man politics, and to the effective exemption...

I wouldn't say the national level is more important, just that it's a factor. Manila factions can't just conjure up tension or trouble in the south, but they can manipulate existing local tension to...

Indonesia hasn't been much involved so far; the Malaysians have been trying to act as a broker, but of course there's a fair bit of mistrust on the Philippine side, given the Sabah claim (fairly...

Fighting still ongoing in Zamboanga...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/14/us-philippines-rebels-idUSBRE98D02V20130914

Almost a year back I wrote this...



Last month Nur Misuari, the leader of one such faction "declared independence", and claimed a new republic consisting of Mindanao, Palawan, the Sulu...

I don't see the NPA as a personal security threat at all; if I did I wouldn't be here. Of course you're right; having a weapon in the house isn't going to do a whole lot of good if a dozen guys with...

Small arms can be legally owned here, with a fair number of restrictions. Illegal arms are commonplace. The NPA is of course illegal by definition. The citizenry is fairly well armed, though...

This is how it hit the news:

http://www.interaksyon.com/article/69712/air-force-mounts-rocket-strikes-vs-npa-in-sagada

That's kind of over-dramatized, it wasn't really that close to villages. ...

Got two MG520s (Philippine Air Force variant of the AH-6) shooting up the ridge just north of here, can see them from the upstairs window. There was an encounter yesterday morning one ridge over, 2...

This:

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/02/20/910908/p-noy-smells-sabotage-peace-talks

Raises an interesting question... who's paying for the so-called "sultan's army".

http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/18/world/asia/malaysia-philippines-standoff/