PH 11th in terror index

The Armed Forces of the Philippines said it was happy over the country’s improved ranking in the Global Terrorism Index for 2015 but urged the deployment of more security forces for further improvement.

In its latest Global Terrorism Index report, the Institute for Economics and Peace ranked the Philippines 11th out of 162 countries affected by terrorist activity, a two-step improvement from ninth place in 2013.

The top five countries that accounted for 78 percent of terrorist attacks were Afghanistan, Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan and Syria. These were followed by India, Yemen, Somalia, Libya, Thailand and the Philippines.

Although the country remained in the top 10 percent of countries most ravaged by terrorism, the Sydney-based think tank, in its report released on Tuesday, noted the Philippines was one of the countries with the “biggest improvement” in terrorism effects from 2013 to 2014.

“The fifth biggest improvement occurred in the Philippines which saw deaths decrease by 18 percent to 240 fatalities in 2014, down from 291 in 2013,” the report said.

In a briefing Thursday, AFP spokesperson Col. Restituto Padilla said “although we are happy with the [improvement] of our ranking among countries affected by terrorism, we need to further improve it.”