PNP beefs up embassy security

MANILA, Philippines – Police have beefed up security around foreign embassies that were reportedly targets of planned attacks by terrorists, Metro Manila Police chief Director Geary Barias said.

He said members of the Philippine National Police–Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) have been detailed in different embassies in Metro Manila even before the reported terror attack.

“With this info (terror attacks), perhaps we’ll have to rethink and come up with new measures to prevent such plans even if these were already thwarted. Maybe we can preempt any threat to the embassies,” Barias added.

“We have security arrangements with these embassies. In fact, the Southern Police District has already placed personnel in those areas and has assigned police escorts to embassy personnel who need protection,” Barias said.

Authorities recently arrested three Middle Eastern militants suspected of involvement in a plot to bomb the US embassy and three other diplomatic buildings in Metro Manila, officials said yesterday.

One of the militants was arrested in Manila and two others were separately captured in Mindanao.

PNP officials, however, are mum on the details of the arrest but vowed to release the information in due time.

Investigators were reportedly verifying intelligence information that the three may have been involved in an active plot to bomb the US, British, Australian and Israeli embassies.

Authorities believe the three may have links with the Indonesia-based militant group Jemaah Islamiyah and the Abu Sayyaf, which have been blamed for a series of deadly bomb attacks.