Philippines: Church attack highlights challenges

A Sunday bomb attack against the Catholic Cathedral of Jolo on 27 January 2019, as reported by Al-Jazeera on 27 January, left at least 20 dead and well over 100 wounded. This orchestrated double-bombing highlights the fact that there is still a long way to go before peace can be established in this poor and war-torn area of the Philippines. Thomas Muller, persecution analyst at World Watch Research, comments: "Whether or not the attack is linked to the region"s referendum on an autonomy law, which took place six days earlier, is not the most important point. The attack definitely highlights that it is naive to assume that the overwhelming vote in support of the law will automatically bring the peace longed for by most of the people in the region - both Muslim and Christian. The autonomy will be politically led by one Muslim group, leaving other and even older Muslim insurgency groups disgruntled. In Jolo itself, both province and city voted against the new autonomy law. However, they will be included in the new autonomy region anyway as they have already been part of an existing, much more limited autonomy. Groups like Abu Sayyaf (which are widely seen as being behind the attack on 27 January 2019) may well have had very personal motives for the bombing such as revenge, as the authorities made clear (World Watch Monitor, 28 January 2019). Another reason for groups like Abu Sayyaf being against this new autonomy may be that they are benefitting from the current weak authorities and a lack of law and order in this region, which has helped them in continuing their piracy and abduction operations." Thomas Muller adds: "Christians in the autonomy region are likely to be doubly threatened by the new situation: First, they may easily be seen as representatives of the Philippine State, which is predominantly Christian, and therefore become more prone to being targeted for attacks. Secondly, Christian converts may additionally be seen as weakening families, villages and ethnic groups by choosing another religion."