What to know about a Philippines region with militant history visited by Bondi Beach suspects

Australian authorities are investigating the recent stay in the Philippines of two suspects in the Bondi Beach attack that killed 15 people, raising questions about potential connections to militant groups in the region.

The father and son accused of the Sydney shooting visited the southern Philippine region of Mindanao from November 1 to November 28 last year, according to the Bureau of Immigration in Manila. Australian police have indicated the attack was inspired by the Islamic State group, citing evidence including “the presence of Islamic State flags in the vehicle that has been seized,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Tuesday.

Philippine National Security Adviser Eduardo Año clarified on Thursday that the suspects stayed in a budget hotel in downtown Davao city, with no evidence they received any training during their visit.

“There is no valid report or confirmation that the two received any form of military training while in the country and no evidence supports such a claim at present,” Año stated. “The duration of their stay would not have allowed for any meaningful or structured training.”

The southern Philippines has historically attracted small numbers of foreign militants aligned with al-Qaida or the Islamic State group seeking to train within the context of the region’s Muslim secessionist conflicts. Mindanao, comprising the southern third of the Philippine archipelago, has experienced decades of intermittent but bloody conflicts over land, resources, and political power.

The region’s troubles date back centuries, when colonialism by the Spanish, Americans, and Filipino Christian settlers marginalized the Muslim population in resource-rich Mindanao. Since the 1970s, approximately 150,000 combatants and civilians have died in these conflicts, which have stunted development in what remains the country’s poorest region.

Western and Asian governments have long worried that these persistent insurgencies could foster Islamic extremism throughout Southeast Asia. Among notable foreign militants who found sanctuary in Mindanao was Umar Patek, an Indonesian and leading member of Jemaah Islamiyah, an al-Qaida-linked network. Patek helped make explosives used in the 2002 Bali nightclub bombing that killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, before being arrested in Pakistan in 2011.

The landscape of militant activity in the region has evolved significantly in recent years. In 1996, the Philippines government and Muslim separatists signed a peace pact allowing thousands of rebels to return to their communities while retaining their firearms. A more comprehensive agreement in 2014 provided broader Muslim autonomy in exchange for the gradual disarmament of fighters.

This latter agreement transformed some of the most formidable rebel commanders into administrators of the Bangsamoro Muslim autonomous region. Critically, it also converted the main rebel front into allies against Islamic State’s attempts to gain influence in Mindanao.

However, splinter groups emerged from the main Muslim rebel fronts that had signed peace deals. Among these was Abu Sayyaf, later blacklisted as a terrorist organization by both the U.S. and the Philippines for mass kidnappings, beheadings, and bombings. Most Abu Sayyaf commanders who had pledged allegiance to ISIS were killed during military operations, including the 2017 siege of Marawi city, where Filipino forces received support from U.S. and Australian surveillance aircraft.

Military offensives have significantly weakened Abu Sayyaf and similar armed groups. According to a senior Philippine security official and a confidential joint assessment by military and police from early last year, there has been no indication of foreign militant presence in the southern Philippines since the last two groups were “neutralized” in 2023.

Earlier this month, the Philippine army reported killing a suspected bomb maker and leader of Dawlah Islamiyah-Hassan, an IS-linked group, in Maguindanao del Sur province.

Sidney Jones, a U.S.-based analyst specializing in Islamic militant movements in Southeast Asia, questioned why the suspected Bondi Beach attackers would seek training in Mindanao given the current situation.

“The level of violence in Mindanao is high, but for the last three years, it’s almost all been linked to elections, clan feuds, or other sources,” Jones noted. “If I were a would-be ISIS fighter, the Philippines would not have been my top destination.”

As investigations continue, authorities are working to determine whether the suspects’ Philippine visit played any role in the tragic events that unfolded at Bondi Beach.