AFP, PNP on alert to prevent repeat of holiday bombings

The Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police are on tight alert amid the Christmas season, guarding bus terminals and sea and airports to prevent a repeat of a series of bombings that killed 22 people in Metro Manila in December 2000, officials said yesterday.

National Security Adviser Roilo Golez told Ageance France Presse that the alert was imposed even before the United States on the weekend raised its nationwide alert level for possible terror attacks from "elevated" to "high," prompting tighter security and even some canceled flights overseas.

"We have a security alert but no specific threat," Golez said.

Soldiers and police could be seen checking bags and luggage as crowds sought public transportation to join their families over Christmas.

Director Ricardo de Leon, the head of security forces in Metropolitan Manila, said the Light Railway Transit and other vital installations were being tightly guarded "to ensure that any terrorist threats would not be allowed to go on."

Manila International Airport Authority general manager Edgar Manda also said they were tightly screening people entering the airport for any suspected terrorists.

The Philippines, a largely Christian country where Christmas is celebrated with huge gatherings in public places, has been on guard for possible terror attacks over the season since a series of bombs exploded in five separate places in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000.

Muslim militants, aided by Indonesian members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) terror network, were blamed for the attacks on the LRT station in Blumentritt, Manila; a bus on EDSA in Cubao, Quezon City; Plaza Ferguson across the US Embassy also in Manila, an abandoned gas station along EDSA in Makati City and a warehouse at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport cargo terminal in Parañaque City. Twently-two people were killed and over a hundred others wounded in the almost simultaneous attacks.

Australian Ambassador Ruth Pearce was quoted in a newspaper as saying the JI continued to be active in the Philippines. — AFP