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Rommel Banlaoi | |
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Personal details | |
Born | Rommel C. Banlaoi April 27, 1970 |
Alma mater | University of the Philippines Diliman (BA, MA, PhD (ABD Status)) Jinan University (PhD) |
Rommel C. Banlaoi (27 April 1970) is a Filipino political scientist, security analyst, an international studies expert, counterterrorism scholar, and a sinologist. He was nominated and designated as a Deputy National Security Adviser with the rank of Undersecretary in July 2022 to lead in the transition process at the National Security Council Secretariat. But he has returned to his work as an independent scholar and a non-government subject matter expert on geopolitics, peace and security studies; counterterrorism research; and, China studies. [1] He is a celebrity professor and policy influencer known for his scholarly works on international terrorism (specifically on the Abu Sayyaf Group), South China disputes, foreign affairs and geopolitical issues. He is the Chairman of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence and Terrorism Research (PIPVTR) [2] and President of the Philippine Society for International Security Studies (PSISS), [3] both academic and non-governmental organizations.
This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(January 2022) |
Banlaoi finished his BA and MA in Political Science at the University of the Philippines in Diliman where he also worked on his PhD in Political Science (ABD Status). He earned his PhD in International Relations at Jinan University in Guangzhou, China. [4]
Banlaoi began his career as Instructor in Political Science at the University of the Philippines Los Banos (1992-1995). [5] and a University Research Associate at the University of the Philippines in Diliman (1996). [6] Afterwards, he became Assistant Professor of International Studies at De La Salle University (1997-1998). [7] He was a Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the National Defense College of the Philippines (1998-2008) where he was also designated as Vice President from 1998-2001. [8] Prior to his academic stint at NDCP, he worked at the Office of the Secretary of National Defense (OSND) during the administration of President Joseph Estrada. While at NDCP, he was detailed to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Plans and Programs (OASPP) during the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. It was also during the term of President Arroyo when Banlaoi served as a senior adviser at the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP),[ citation needed ] founding Director of the Mayor's Development Center (MDC), [9] and a consultant at the National Counter-Terrorism Action Group (NACTAG),[ citation needed ] the forerunner of the Philippine Anti-Terrorism Council (ATC) established by the Human Security Act of 2007, otherwise known as the Philippine Anti-Terrorism Law currently replaced by the Philippine Anti_Terrorism Law of 2020.[ citation needed ] He was then appointed as a member of the Advisory Council of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) during the administration of President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. He was also appointed member to the Advisory Council of the PNP Drug Enforcement Group (PDEG) under the administration of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. In 2021, he was reappointed as member of the National Advisory Group of the CIDG and eventually elected as its Vice Chairman for External Affairs. Banlaoi also received appointment as Professor and Director for Research and Publication at the World City College (WCC)in 2004-2005 and member of the Board of Regents of the University of Eastern Pangasinan (UEP) in 2006. Since 2011, he has been teaching at the Department of International Studies at Miriam College, the Philippines.
Banlaoi received in June 2021 the Award for Outstanding Contribution in the Promotion of Philippines-China Understanding offered by the Association of Philippines-China Understanding (APCU) and the Chinese Embassy in the Philippines. [10] Because of his involvement in peace education, terrorism research and non-violence studies, he received the Albani Peace Prize Award for Peace Education. [11] On the occasion of the 2016 World CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) Congress Day in Mumbai, India, Banlaoi received the Award for Outstanding Contribution to Humanitarian and Social Cause. [12] Banlaoi has been called[ by whom? ] "the father of Philippine counter-terrorism research" and the "leading Philippine scholar" studying radical Islam. [13]
Dr. Banlaoi is currently the Chairman of the Board of Advisers of the China Studies Center of the School of International Relations at New Era University. He served as the President of the Philippine Association for Chinese Studies (PACS) from 2018 to 2022 [14] and became a member of the Management Board of the World Association for Chinese Studies (WACS) in 2019. [15] He is currently the Director of the Center for the Study of Philippines-China Relations (CSPCR), the research arm of the Philippines-China Friendship Society (PCFS) where he serves as a co-convenor representing the Philippine side. [16] He is also a member of the International Panel of Experts of the Maritime Awareness Project (MAP) [17] of the National Bureau of Asian Research (NBR) and the Sasakawa Peace Foundation (SPF) based in Washington DC, [18] while serving as member of the Board of Directors of the China-Southeast Asia Research Centre on the South China Sea based in Hainan, China. [19] He served as a member of the Philippine Council for Foreign Relations (PCFR) and a Senior Fellow at the Yuchengco Centre (YC) of De La Salle University (DLSU) where three of his scholarly works were published. [20] He is an Adjunct Research Professor at the National Institute for South China Sea Studies based in Hainan, China. [21] Banlaoi contributes to the official publications of the Southeast Asian Regional Center for Counter-Terrorism (SEARCCT) based in Kuala Lumpur. [22] He served as Chairman of the Council for Asian Terrorism Research, a consortium of some of the best research organizations on counter-terrorism research in respective country of the Asia Pacific region. [23] He was also appointed as a Non-Resident Fellow of the Center for Global Counterterrorism Cooperation based in New York City. [24] He was a Fellow of the Asia Pacific Center for Asia Pacific Studies (APCSS) based in Hawaii, USA [25] and Visiting Fellow at the Faculty of Law of Leiden University, the Netherlands. [26] He is currently the Convenor of the Network for the Prevention of Violent Extremism in the Philippines (NPVEP). [27]
Banlaoi is the basis of a fictional character, Counsilor/Prof. Banlaoi, [28] in a successful Philippine musical, Ang Huling El Bimbo. [29]
Abu Sayyaf, officially known by the Islamic State as the Islamic State – East Asia Province, is a Jihadist militant and pirate group that follows the Wahhabi doctrine of Sunni Islam. It is based in and around Jolo and Basilan islands in the southwestern part of the Philippines, where for more than four decades, Moro groups have been engaged in an insurgency seeking to make Moro Province independent. The group is considered violent and was responsible for the Philippines' worst terrorist attack, the bombing of MV Superferry 14 in 2004, which killed 116 people. The name of the group is derived from the Arabic abu, and sayyaf. As of April 2023, the group is estimated to have about 20 members, down from 1,250 in 2000. They use mostly improvised explosive devices, mortars and automatic rifles.
Jemaah Islamiyah is a Southeast Asian Islamist militant group based in Indonesia, which is dedicated to the establishment of an Islamic state in Southeast Asia. On 25 October 2002, immediately following the JI-perpetrated 2002 Bali bombings, JI was added to the UN Security Council Resolution 1267.
Mohammed Jamal Khalifa (1 February 1957 – 31 January 2007) was a Saudi businessman from Jeddah who married one of Osama bin Laden's sisters. He has been accused of funding terror plots and groups in the Philippines in the 1990s while head of the International Islamic Relief Organization branch there. He was murdered in Madagascar in 2007.
Operation Enduring Freedom – Philippines (OEF-P) or Operation Freedom Eagle was part of Operation Enduring Freedom and the global War on Terror. The Operation targeted the various Jihadist terror groups operating in the country. By 2009, about 600 U.S. military personnel were advising and assisting the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) in the Southern Philippines. In addition, by 2014, the CIA had sent its elite paramilitary officers from their Special Activities Division to hunt down and kill or capture key terrorist leaders. This group had the most success in combating and capturing Al-Qaeda leaders and the leaders of associated groups like Abu Sayyaf.
Islam in the Philippines is the second largest religion in the country, and the faith was the first-recorded monotheistic religion in the Philippines. Historically, Islam reached the Philippine archipelago in the 14th century, through contact with Muslim Malay and Arab merchants along Southeast Asian trade networks, in addition to Sufi missionaries from the Ba Alawi of Yemen from the Persian Gulf, southern India, and their followers from several sultanates in the wider Malay Archipelago. The first missionaries then followed in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. They facilitated the formation of sultanates and conquests in mainland Mindanao and Sulu. Those who converted to Islam came to be known as the Moros, with Muslim conquest reaching as far as Tondo that was later supplanted by Bruneian Empire vassal-state of Maynila.
Abdurajak Abubakar Janjalani was a Filipino Islamist militant who was the chief founder and leader of the Abu Sayyaf organization until his death in 1998 by Filipino police. Upon his death his brother, Khadaffy Janjalani, took control of the organization.
The Moro conflict was an insurgency in the Mindanao region of the Philippines, which involved multiple armed groups. Peace deals have been signed between the Philippine government and two major armed groups, the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), but other smaller armed groups continue to exist. In 2017, the peace council settled around 138 clan conflicts.
Isnilon Totoni Hapilon, also known by the nom de guerreAbu Abdullah al-Filipini, was a Filipino Islamist militant affiliated with ISIS. He was formerly leader of Abu Sayyaf Group, before its battalions pledged their allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. An April 2016 issue of ISIL's weekly newsletter Al Naba said that Hapilon had been appointed as "emir of all Islamic State forces in the Philippines".
Terrorism is a major social issue in the Philippines linked to the Moro conflict and the communist rebellion. The country ranks in 18th place on the Global Terrorism Index's 2023 list of countries most affected by terrorism.
The Philippines–United States relations refers to the bilateral and diplomatic relations of the Republic of the Philippines and the United States of America. The relationship between the United States and the Philippines has been historically strong; often described as a "special relationship," originating from the fact that the Philippines was a colony of the United States between 1898 and 1946. The former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, however, was supportive of a foreign policy that was less dependent on the United States, favoring one that prioritized closer relations with China and Russia, despite the Philippines and the U.S. having a mutual defense treaty dating from 1951 to the present. In 2014, the countries signed an enhanced defense cooperation agreement that began its first phase of implementation in 2019.
U.S. President Barack Obama's East Asia Strategy (2009–2017), also known as the Pivot to Asia, represented a significant shift in the foreign policy of the United States since the 2010s. It shifted the country's focus away from the Middle Eastern and European sphere and allowed it to invest heavily and build relationships in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, especially countries which are in close proximity to the People's Republic of China (PRC) either economically, geographically or politically to counter its rise as a rival superpower.
The Rajah Sulaiman Movement was an organization in the Philippines, founded by Ahmed Santos in 1991. According to the Philippine government, the group's militants had been trained, financed and governed by Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah, a Philippine terrorist group with links to the Al Qaeda.
The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF), also known as the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement, is an Islamist militant organization based in Mindanao, the Philippines. It follows the Wahhabi ideology that is currently being spread by Wahhabi preachers in the country. It is a smaller player in the overall Moro insurgency in the Philippines and is mostly active in Maguindanao and other places in central Mindanao. It is a breakaway group from the Moro Islamic Liberation Front founded by Ameril Umbra Kato. Following Kato's death, the group split into three factions, one of which has aligned with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), while the other two are less radical.
Exercise Balikatan is the most prominent annual military exercise between the Philippines and the United States. The Tagalog word balikatan means "shoulder-to-shoulder". The exercises have been the cornerstone of Philippines–United States military relations since the closure of U.S. bases in the Philippines.
The Maute group, also known as the Islamic State of Lanao, was a radical Islamist group composed of former Moro Islamic Liberation Front guerrillas and foreign fighters led by Omar Maute, the alleged founder of a Dawlah Islamiya, or Islamic state, based in Lanao del Sur, Philippines. The group, which a Philippine Army brigade commander characterized as terrorist, had been conducting a protection racket in the remote settlements of Butig, Lanao del Sur. This group follows the Wahhabi ideology and uses the book of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab called Kitab at-Tawhid in indoctrinating its followers. It had clashed on several occasions with Armed Forces of the Philippines troops, the most significant of which began in May 2017 and culminated in the siege of Marawi.
The Philippines is one of the state opponents of the militant group, Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), more commonly referred to by the local media as the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
On July 31, 2018, a bomb exploded in the town of Lamitan in Basilan, Philippines.
The 2019 Indanan bombings occurred on 28 June 2019, when two suicide bombers detonated their explosives in two areas of a military camp in Indanan, Sulu, Philippines killing three soldiers and three civilians. The Philippine military confirmed it was two suicide bombers that caused the attack. They also believed that the attack was conducted in a similar manner to an attack on a cathedral in Jolo in January 2019. The military also blames the Abu Sayyaf for the earlier attack.
The Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020, officially designated as Republic Act No. 11479, is a counter-terrorism law intended to prevent, prohibit, and penalize terrorism in the Philippines. The law was passed by the 18th Congress and signed by President Rodrigo Duterte on July 3, 2020, effectively replacing the Human Security Act of 2007 on July 18, 2020.
The 2020 Jolo bombings occurred on August 24, 2020, when insurgents alleged to be jihadists from the Abu Sayyaf group detonated two bombs in Jolo, Sulu, Philippines, killing 14 people and wounding 75 others. The first occurred as Philippine Army personnel were assisting in carrying out COVID-19 humanitarian efforts. The second, a suicide bombing, was carried out near the Our Lady of Mount Carmel Cathedral.
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