Palace blames Reds for embassy threat

Malacañang said the communist New People’s Army (NPA) was most likely behind the "plausible threat" that forced the suspension of public services at the US Embassy in Manila for the second day yesterday.

Six other embassies — those of Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland — received similar bomb threats yesterday but did not shut down operations after informing the police.

The threat prompted Australia and Canada to issue separate travel advisories yesterday warning their citizens in the Philippines to take precautions.

The US Embassy will reopen today after authorities have determined that the threat has passed, an embassy spokesman said yesterday.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said government security forces had received intelligence information that the NPA was planning an attack.

"For the longest time, we have always regarded the NPA as a terrorist group. They’re the number one source of terrorism in the Philippines," Ermita told a press briefing.

US intelligence chief John Negroponte made a surprise visit to the Philippines late Tuesday, embassy spokesman Matt Lussenhop said.

The former US ambassador to the Philippines arrived unannounced and met that same night with President Arroyo, Lussenhop said.

The top US spy chief was also due to meet with other top security officials on intelligence matters and the terrorism threat.

Press Secretary and Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye Jr. said Mrs. Arroyo had dinner with Negroponte on Tuesday, but refused to say what the two discussed.

Ermita said Negroponte’s visit is not believed to be linked to the threat that prompted the US Embassy to suspend operations on Tuesday but he did inquire about the Philippines’ progress in its own campaign on terrorism.

Yesterday, the embassy announced that it would resume its services today.

"Our public services will resume. We felt the original threat was plausible and it was necessary to close the public services," Lussenhop said. He declined to disclose the nature of the threat against the embassy.

Public services that were temporarily suspended included visa, consulate services, the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Affairs Regional Office.

But other offices of the embassy remained open and employees reported for work.

Australia and Canada advised its citizens in the Philippines to be alert, especially in public places. Both countries also warned against traveling to the south.

Ermita said there had been a number of threats from different groups opposed to the government but the most serious was from the NPA.

"They’re not hiding the fact they have receive orders from their boss (Communist Party of the Philippines founding chairman Jose Maria Sison) to intensify violent activities against the government," he said.

During his visit, Negroponte, 65, who heads some 15 US intelligence agencies, will discuss "the full gamut of (security) issues but obviously terrorism is the highest on the list," the spokesman added.

The Philippines has been a key ally of the United States in the "war on terror," even while battling local Muslim extremists with links to the al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiyah militant groups.

The specific nature of the threat to the embassy was not disclosed but Philippine police had dispatched bomb squads to search the area.

Security was also tightened around other embassies in the country after the Swiss and Singapore missions received anonymous calls on Tuesday warning of imminent car bomb attacks, said police Chief Superintendent Wilfredo Garcia.

Bunye reassured the public that "deep intelligence gathering and preemptive measures are already in place to foreclose any serious breaches in our peace and order situation."

He said security forces were working with foreign embassies to neutralize any threats, but did not identify who might be behind the threats.

Earlier this year, Philippine authorities said they had thwarted a plot by Jemaah Islamiyah and their local allies to mount a 1,000-kilo truck bomb attack on the US embassy.

The embassies of Australia and Britain, other key US allies in the war on terror, were also eyed as possible targets, officials said.

Philippine security officials estimate the NPA has about 10,000 members.

In October, the European Union renewed its terrorist designation on the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), its founder Jose Ma. Sison, and its armed wing, the NPA.

The United States also considers the CPP and the NPA as terrorist organizations.

The terrorist designation makes it illegal for US citizens to provide support to the party, which maintains ties with leftist groups in western countries. It also requires financial institutions to block assets and it bars representatives of the CPP from entering the United States or makes them subject to deportation.

Sison founded the CPP in 1969 and began one of the world’s longest-running communist insurgencies. Sison, who lives in Utrecht, the Netherlands, objects to the terror label, arguing that the CPP is a legitimate political party, decriminalized after the 1986 ouster of dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

The Arroyo administration has been trying to restart peace talks. — With Pia Lee-Brago, AFP