JOLO, Sulu: When Philippine security forces won a major fight with militants affiliated with Daesh in 2017, a new surge in attacks led to concerns that the group, which originated in the Middle East, was expanding its operations in the Southeast Asian country. Five years later, the military says its operations have decreased the threat, but it is not entirely gone.

The main Daesh affiliate in the Philippines has been the Abu Sayyaf Group, a militant outfit that operates in the country’s south.

Formed in 1991, it emerged as a splinter group of the Moro National Liberation Front, a movement seeking autonomy for Filipino Muslims in the southern Philippines. It was initially influenced by Al-Qaeda, but since the early 2000s, it has gained notoriety for extortion, assassinations and kidnappings — often beheading hostages if a ransom was not paid. In 2014, some of its factions pledged allegiance to Daesh.

The ASG was not the only militant outfit in the Philippines that did so, but it was the most notorious, with one of its leaders, Isnilon Hapilon, touted as the Daesh “emir” in the country.

In 2017, militants mainly from the ASG and another Daesh affiliate, Dawlah Islamiya, also known as the Maute group, took control of the city of Marawi in the southern Philippines. After five months of fighting and widespread destruction, the Philippine army was able to reclaim the city. Hapilon, the Maute group’s main leadership and some foreign fighters were killed.

But after the Marawi battle, attacks increased in the country, including suicide bombings that indicated the presence of foreign fighters; local militants generally did not use such a method of fighting. Daesh became a major cause of concern. In 2018, the US Department of State designated Daesh-Philippines as a separate group on its list of foreign terrorist organizations.

It was also in 2018 that the Philippine military stepped up a crackdown on Daesh affiliates. The Maute group was soon decimated and significantly weakened. But the ASG remains, although the military says its threat has now declined due to limited inflows of money and an apparent leadership crisis.

Data from the 11th Infantry Division, a Philippine army unit designated to fight militancy in the southwestern island of Sulu, shows that the number of militants active in the area has decreased from about 300 in 2019 to an estimated 100.

“Here in Sulu, militants aligned with the Daesh have lost their international support. We are no longer monitoring fund transfers from outside,” Maj. Gen. Patrimonio, commander of the 11th Infantry Division, told Arab News.

After Hapilon’s death, Sulu-based Hadjan Sawadjaan reportedly emerged as the Daesh-Philippines leader. He was named as the mastermind behind a 2019 attack by two Indonesian suicide bombers on a cathedral in Jolo, the capital of Sulu, and another deadly twin blast in the city in 2020. Sawadjaan also oversaw the kidnapping of Arab News Asia Bureau Chief Baker Atyani, who at that time was working for Al-Arabiya. Atyani was held captive by the ASG for 18 months, until December 2013.

In November 2020, the Philippines announced Sawadjaan’s death, following an encounter with security forces.

After Sawadjaan, there was no one capable of taking over as Daesh leader in Sulu, Patrimonio said, “so the designation as emir went to Salahuddin Hassan, a Dawlah Islamiya (Maute group) leader operating in south-central Mindanao. But only last year, he was also neutralized.”

Maj. Lawrence Aranas, a member of the 11th Infantry Division’s civil relations team, said the military had identified Hatib Majid Saeed, alias Amah Pattit, as the new Daesh leader in Sulu. Pattit is the uncle of notorious ASG sub-leader and bombmaker Mudzrimar “Mundi” Sawadjaan, the suspected handler of the executors of the 2019 and 2020 Jolo attacks.

“Based on revelations of the former fighters, Saeed himself is hesitant to lead Daesh in the Philippines,” Aranas told Arab News, adding that since 2021 there have been no attempts by the group to carry out kidnappings for ransom and that with no money inflows, the militants had resorted to selling their own firearms for sustenance.

“By 2020, their financial support was almost gone. They have been limited to local support and the help of relatives not only financially but logistics-wise as well, such as food.”

According to Aranas, only two foreign militants remain in Sulu, an Egyptian and an Indonesian, the son of the couple that carried out the 2019 Jolo cathedral bombing.

While the Daesh-affiliated faction, which used to be led by Hapilon, is experiencing a leadership crisis and its members have been surrendering to the army, they are not the only remaining ASG militants.

There is also Radullan Sahiron, currently the chief leader of the ASG, who never pledged allegiance to Daesh. He remains at large with a $1 million bounty on his head, but Aranas said he is unlikely to support Daesh or foreign fighters.

“Based on the account of the surrenderers, he’s not letting them join his group.”

The apparent dwindling influence of Daesh does not, however, mean that the threat is gone. Any future entry of militants into the Philippines is also not ruled out.

“We still have very loose security and monitoring in our borders. If not in Sulu, they can also use Tawi-Tawi and Basilan as entry points,” Aranas said.

Patrimonio also acknowledged that militants “still pose a threat for as long they are here.”

“Mundi (Sawadjaan) and the two foreign fighters are still around, and there are still reports of planned bombings. So, they are still a threat to Sulu.”

The Philippine military’s success in containing the danger of militancy has been observed, but with caution.

“It’s difficult to eradicate such a threat completely,” Rikard Jalkebro, associate professor at Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy in Abu Dhabi, who has researched militant groups in the Philippines, told Arab News.

“We know that it’s very easy for Daesh to strap on a suicide vest and blow themselves up at a church or outside a marketplace,” he said.

“You can kind of import the ideology and the package deal to conduct terrorism.”

But in an organized way, he added, “it looks like they are definitely diminished.”

“I’m quite impressed with the Armed Forces of the Philippines. This clearly is something.”