Islamist Insurgency and Terrorism Report – May 2025
In May 2025, PSA Intelligence recorded six Islamist insurgency-related violent incidents. There were three encounters, two assassination attacks, and one bombing incident.
Six Islamist-related violent incidents were recorded in May 2025. Half of the incidents were against government troops, while the other targets include a municipal councilor who ran under the Moro Islamic Liberation Front’s (MILF) political party in the recent elections, as well as a family in what was possibly a clan violence-related attack.
Four of the incidents occurred in the province of Maguindanao del Sur, while the provinces of Maguindanao del Norte and Lanao del Sur each reported one incident during the period. PSA notes that violence relating to politics, insurgency, and crime may sometimes overlap with one another due to the nature and the location of such attacks.
The 2025 national and local midterm elections was a significant development in May 2025, wherein the MILF, through its United Bangsamoro Justice Party (UBJP), won big in the local gubernatorial and municipal polls across the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). Its alliance with the administration’s Partido Federal ng Pilipinas (PFP) helped the party secure local positions in towns where it has traditionally struggled against more entrenched political clans and personalities. However, the UBJP had mixed results in some provinces, highlighting the limitations of the UBJP-PFP alliance and the continued influence of some political clans in the region.
The UBJP-PFP coalition helped the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its allies clinch most gubernatorial seats across the region and at least 61 of the 105 mayoral positions up for contest. Notably, among these were the Maguindanao provinces for the gubernatorial level, as well as parts of Maguindanao del Sur, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, and Tawi-Tawi for the municipal level.
PSA expects the UBJP’s success to help the MILF bid to retain leadership of the BARMM in the October parliamentary elections.
PSA Intelligence Security Analyst Team Inside
The PSA Intelligence team of security and risk analysts monitor thousands of intelligence sources across the Philippines and broader APAC region daily. PSA Intelligence supplies well-known international corporate security operations centers and enterprise risk management teams the reports and data required for their operations.
Contact us to for access to our regular risk management reports and data-feeds. Be sure to talk to us about our analyst vetted, reliable data feeds for your AI driven risk management systems too. We have 20+ years of back-data and keep the data acquisition pipelines running so you don't have to.
PSA Intelligence: Regional Reporting Capabilities
Our fast-paced intelligence pipeline is driven by a dedicated team of Manila-based security analysts that monitor the Philippine landscape every day. We bring together on-the-ground local insight with large scale data monitoring and cut through the noise to deliver the concise, actionable intelligence that our clients rely on to navigate their risks.
Regular Briefs & Industry Monitors
We provide a weekly digest of key political, economic, and security developments and analysis of their short and long-term impact on the local and regional business environment. Our Industry Monitors deliver regular summaries of key developments in manufacturing, energy, mining, and tourism.
Our Cyber Risks Briefs detail emerging cyberthreats, digital security vulnerabilities, and regulatory shifts, while our Economic Briefs provide macroeconomic snapshots covering inflation, trade markers, and fiscal policy. We also publish Health Risks Briefs tracking local disease statistics and healthcare capacities.
Targeted Crime & Kidnapping Reports
Our teams produce continuous updates and analysis on developing crime and safety trends targeting corporates and staff, ranging from opportunistic petty crime to syndicated criminal activity. This includes deep dives on known modus operandi, suspect profiles, and sociopolitical environments.
Additionally, we monitor Kidnapping Related Incidents in the Philippines, tracking publicly-known abduction cases, motives, victim profiles, and the broader regional developments that influence these threat vectors.
Insurgency, Terrorism, and Civil Unrest
We conduct ongoing analysis of activities of Communist insurgents in the Philippines, including their estimated operational capabilities, regional hotspots, and the progress of government peace processes.
Our coverage extends to Islamist Insurgency and Terrorism in Mindanao, assessing activities not limited to terrorism-related motivations but also criminal, personal, and cultural factors. We provide continuous assessments of political stability, strikes, protests, and broader civil unrest dynamics affecting operational continuity.
Ask an Analyst
Do you have a question regarding this report that you would like to ask our team of security and risk analysts? Ask here.
Query Sent
Thank you. Our intelligence team will respond to your query shortly.