"She is preparing a new policy statement on terrorism. One key input would be the direction that the United States would take" following the destruction of the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon by suicide hijackers, Golez said.
He told dzRH radio that the threat "has ceased to become an internal threat alone."
Mrs. Arroyo said on Friday that she would push for the creation of a regional anti-terrorist front at the annual meeting of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders in November.
Vice President Teofisto Guingona, also the foreign secretary, has "already started to sound out" two neighboring states on setting up a regional anti-terrorism coalition, Mrs. Arroyo said, referring to Indonesia and Malaysia.
"In the course of sounding out, there was an idea that arose that it might even graduate into a major agenda item in the next ASEAN summit," Mrs. Arroyo told a news conference.
ASEAN leaders next meet in Brunei on Nov. 5 and 6. The grouping also includes Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The region faces growing rebellion by Muslim separatists believed to be slowly linking up with each other.
Philippine officials say the Abu Sayyaf guerrilla group once received aid from Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, wanted in the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Abu Sayyaf bandits are holding 18 hostages, including American missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham, in Basilan.
Chief Superintendent Virtus Gil of the Cordillera regional police said a former ranking commander of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has revealed that the terrorists are eyeing the cities of General Santos, Davao, Cebu and Olongapo or the Subic Freeport.
Gil said the terrorists are among the Southeast Asian Muslims who were supposedly recruited by Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden to fight in the Islamic war that led to the installation of the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
Gil said police are already on heightened alert in Baguio City and La Trinidad and are preparing to implement a plan that would close all exit and entrance points to the city within 15 minutes.
"If possible, we want to get that terrorist," Gil said.
The Cordillera police chief surmised terrorist cells in the country may be targeting Baguio City because the US ambassador has a resthouse there while the US-based technology firm Texas Instruments maintains offices in the city.
Texas Instruments is the largest maker of aviation microchips for the US military outside of mainland US, Gil noted.
He said police are now monitoring the city’s Muslim community and the foreign students who are enrolled in local colleges and universities.
"They are the logical haven of Afghan-trained Filipino Muslim terrorists," he added. – Jose Rodel Clapano, Artemio Dumlao