Security Under Scrutiny In Southern Philippines Amid Terror Attacks

MAGUINDANAO PROVINCE, PHILIPPINES - APRIL 19: Local merchants selling their goods at a makeshift market in Datu Piang, Maguindanao on April 19, 2016 in Maguindanao Province, Philippines. For more than forty years, the southern region of Mindanao in the Philippines has been a battleground for numerous Islamic secessionist armies and terror groups. One of the most radical of Islamic separatist group in Southern Philippines, Abu Sayyaf, beheaded a Canadian man on 25 April 2016 after they took him hostage along with three others in September 2015. Widespread injustice and oppression to Muslim communities and their land continues to cause vulnerability in the region to extremist ideas such as ISIS. Despite ongoing peace talks between rebel groups and the Philippine government, militants such as the Moro Islamic Liberation Front continues to push for an autonomous Islamic region in restive Southern Philippines. (Photo by Jes Aznar/Getty Images)