Back in the shadow of terror
The horror that unfolded on Dec. 14 at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, where 15 people were killed during what should have been a peaceful Hanukkah celebration, has cast a long and terrifying shadow beyond Australia, stretching thousands of miles into the Philippines.
As authorities there confirmed that the father-and-son attackers had spent nearly a month in the Philippines’ southern region before returning to sow terror at home, speculation hardened into suspicion that Mindanao may once again have served as a training ground for foreign extremists. The discovery of Isis (Islamic State in Iraq and Syria) flags in the suspects’ vehicle only deepened such conjectures, and, worse, some foreign media outlets jumped the gun by labeling the country as a hotbed of terror.
Naturally, the government pushed back. President Marcos “strongly [rejected]” any depiction of the Philippines as an “Isis training hotspot,” according to Palace press officer Claire Castro. Her statement echoed the National Security Council, insisting “there is no validated report or confirmation that the individuals involved in the Bondi Beach incident received any form of training in the Philippines.”
Akrams’ movements
But even as foreign media may have overshot the facts, Manila owes it to the victims, and to itself, to determine with precision what Sajid Akram, 50, and his son Naveed, 24, did in the country, including in Davao City, where they stayed from Nov. 1 to Nov. 28, and whether they made contact with any local group or individual linked to extremist networks.
Recent reports indicate that the pair rarely left their tiny hotel room and never for more than an hour; they also weren’t seen meeting guests or receiving visitors, according to hotel staff quoted in The Guardian. That alone raises a lot of questions.
To help investigators and the grieving families in Australia, our agencies must leave no stone unturned and map the Akrams’ movements, verify their contacts and ferret out the truth beneath the guesswork, whether it dispels baseless claims or confirms a breach of the fragile peace in Mindanao.
Sidney Jones, a United States-based analyst who has studied Islamic militant movements in Southeast Asia, noted in an Associated Press report that although violence remained in Mindanao, it was no longer coming from the usual suspects.
“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,” the analyst said. “If I were a would-be Isis fighter, the Philippines would not have been my top destination.”
Sources of conflict
As Philippine security officials have emphasized, IS-linked groups such as Abu Sayyaf are severely weakened, Moro rebels covered by peace agreements have largely stayed within the political process, and the most serious threats today arise from sources far removed from transnational jihad.
Clan feuds, private armed groups, shadow economies, and election-driven violence now dominate the security landscape. These sources of conflict remain dangerous, but they do not indicate a resurgence of the foreign-trained extremist networks that once plagued the region.
This is why nuance matters: One may reject sensationalized claims that Mindanao has again become a haven for global terrorists while still demanding an honest accounting of what the two would-be killers in Australia did during their brief stay here.
It is also possible to acknowledge the tremendous progress of peacebuilding and counterterrorism operations without downplaying the persistence of localized violence that continues to cost lives in the southern Philippines.
Unfair narratives
Thus, any credible link between the Akrams and local groups, however tangential, requires immediate attention. Should the investigation find nothing of the sort, Manila will be in a stronger position to repudiate unfair narratives that caricature Mindanao as a breeding ground for extremists despite data that say otherwise.
“There have been no recorded terrorist training activities, recruitment efforts, or major attacks by domestic local terrorist groups since 2016, and especially none since 2024,” Armed Forces of the Philippines spokesperson Col. Francel Margareth Padilla said on Wednesday, adding that local terrorists’ manpower had steadily declined from 1,257 members in 2016 to just 50 in 2025.
Still, Mindanao’s history of playing host to regional terrorists who trained combatants and plotted bombings cannot be ignored nor erased.
For that reason alone, Philippine authorities must not rule out any link to the Sydney attack until the investigation is complete. Once it is, they must share their findings with transparency and cooperate fully with Australian investigators.
The nation owes that much to the victims in Sydney and to all Filipinos who have worked and are still working tirelessly to lift Mindanao out of the shadow of terrorism–a goal that may well be as challenging as winning peace itself.
