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Recent bombings in southern Philippines could be
replicated in Metro Manila by the very same terrorists who had
attacked Cotabato City and Lanao del Norte and Sulu provinces, the
military said Wednesday.
According to Jogy Leo Fojas, the
chief of the Metro Manila Command of the Armed Forces of the
Philippines, they were validating reports about the presence of
members of the Abu Sayyaf and Jemaah Islamiah (JI), as well as rogue
members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) who would carry
out bombing in Metro Manila, or the National Capital Region (NCR).
The Mindanao-based Abu Sayyaf and
the Southeast Asia-based Jemaah Islamiyah are linked to the global
terror network al-Qaeda. Both are listed by the US State Department
as foreign terrorist organizations. The MILF itself, not listed as
such by the State Department, is seen as the biggest separatist
group in the Philippines. For almost four decades, it has been
fighting for an independent Islamic homeland in Mindanao.
Fojas said that based on
information they have gathered, the terrorists arrived in Metro
Manila on different dates and were working together for the
execution of a plan to bomb several places in the region, including
military camps and the House of Representatives in Quezon City,
where President Gloria Arroyo is scheduled to deliver her State of
the Nation Address on July 27.
“We are monitoring them
[terrorists] closely so they would not be able to do it [bombing
spree],” he added.
Fojas said that he had placed the
entire regional command under red alert starting 7 a.m. of
Wednesday.
He added that they are monitoring
areas in Metro Manila where the terrorists could be hiding but he
refused to give details for security reasons.
The terrorists, Fojas said,
arrived weeks before the series of bomb attacks in Central Mindanao
and Western Mindanao starting last week that killed at least eight
persons and wounded almost a hundred others.
“If I have to assess, the
targets [of the terrorists] are our vital installations, maybe the
military camps, maybe Congress,” he added.
Martial law fears
The opposition sees the recent
bombings in southern Philippines as a reason for Malacañang to
declare a state of emergency and even martial law and implicate the
opposition in the bombings and so-called destabilization plots.
Mayor Jejomar Binay of Makati
City, also the president of the United Opposition (UNO), earlier
said that the administration has been warning of possible
declaration of martial law if there is chaos “and these bombings
are intended to create a perception of chaos.”
Fojas said the plan to bomb Metro
Manila would not succeed because security forces in the region were
doing their job to deny the terrorists any opportunity to carry out
their plan.
“I would like to make an appeal
to the people of Metro Manila that this is everybody’s concern,
and we need the AFP [Armed Forces of the Philippines] and the PNP
[Philippine National Police] and all other law-enforcement
agencies’ support through giving of information on any suspicious
persons . . . please help us, so that we can totally prevent
bombings here in Metro Manila,” he added.
Police investigators also on
Wednesday said that they have unmasked those behind the Mindanao
bombings.
This was the report received by
the national police chief, Director General Jesus Verzosa, from his
people on the ground who claimed to have obtained significant leads
to establish a peculiar bomb signature that will identify the
bombers.
Car bomb
The use of a car bomb for the
first time may escalate terroristic acts in Mindanao, Sen. Rodolfo
Biazon said also on Wednesday.
Biazon, the chairman of the
Senate Committee on National Defense, added that the use of
improvised bombs was not as scary as the use of a car bomb.
A car bomb was used in the
bombing in Iligan City, Lanao del Norte, on Tuesday, injuring 10
persons. No fatality was reported.
“The military said this was
just a test mission. Can you imagine what would be the damage when a
real mission was conducted?” Biazon told Senate reporters.
He said that hundreds of bombs
could be packed in a car, which could heighten the damage to
property and the number of casualties.
“Definitely, they have an
intention. They may escalate the terroristic acts,” Biazon warned.
Terrorists in Iraq, Pakistan and
Afghanistan often use car bombs. Biazon said the use of a car bomb
in Iligan City indicated that what was happening in those countries
could happen in the Philippines.
The senator added that if the
military was correct that Jemaah Islamiah was training local
terrorists, then the local terrorists might have adopted the tactics
of JI.
He urged President Arroyo to
immediately convene the National Security Council to determine what
was really happening in Mindanao and for the government to put
together a program that would counter the effects and consequences
of the bombing incidents.
Biazon noted that there were
different voices in government ascribing the bombings to different
suspects and different motives.
“There is no clear statement to
allay fears of the people and correct any wrong perceptions,” he
said.
Bad impression
Biazon added that the failure of
the government to explain the 62 bombings merely fuels perceptions
that the government was behind these incidents.
He said that the NSC should study
if the bombings could lead to a backlash from religious and other
sectors, recalling that groups in Mindanao put the law in their own
hands after the attacks on North Cotabato and Sarangani provinces by
supposedly rogue MILF members.
Meanwhile, Sen. Pia Cayetano said
that the bombings in just three days suggested a breakdown in the
intelligence work of the police and the military.
Cayetano said she was “willing
to support any initiative in the Senate to make a full accounting of
how the police and military leadership are using hundreds of
millions in confidential and intelligence funds allocated to them
every year.”
The intelligence fund in the 2009
budget for the Philippine National Police is P270 million and for
the Armed Forces of the Philippines, P118 million. The Office of the
President has the biggest intelligence fund for 2009—P650 million.
“With public trust in the
Arroyo government at a critical low, people can’t be blamed for
speculating that these terror acts could be part of a grand scheme
to justify emergency rule by an administration desperately wanting
to cling to power. It has happened before in the 1970s before Marcos
declared martial law to extend his rule. It can happen now,”
Cayetano said.
Then-President Ferdinand Marcos
declared martial law in 1972. He was forced into exile in 1986 by a
bloodless “people power” revolt.
Attack on civilians
The bombings were described also
on Wednesday by Amnesty International as an “unlawful attack on
civilians” that showed “contempt for the most fundamental
principles of humanity.”
“The Philippine government must
initiate prompt, independent investigations into the attacks and to
bring those responsible to justice in proceedings that meet
international standards of fairness. It must not react to the
bombings with any measures which themselves violate human rights,
the London-based watchdog said.
The Philippines’ Commission on
Human Rights also on Wednesday called the recent attacks
“barbaric.”
Its chairman, Leila de Lima, said
that she wanted assurance from the government that no civilians
would be affected by police and military operations in pursuit of
suspected bombers.
Jefferson Antiporda, Sammy
Martin, Ira Karen Apanay And Efren L. Danao
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