AFP deploys more intel agents in Metro

MANILA, Philippines - More military intelligence agents were deployed in various areas in Metro Manila as part of the continuing alert against a group who reportedly planned to bomb the procession during the Feast of the Black Nazarene last Monday in Quiapo, Manila.

Military sources claimed that the intelligence operations cover many areas of the metropolis to monitor the movements of six to nine members of the terrorist group.

“Our plainclothes intelligence personnel are already out there pounding the ground in line with the ongoing anti-terror security and intelligence operations,” said the official who refused to be identified.

Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said the other day that despite the peaceful celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene, the terrorist alert in Metro Manila is still in effect.

Gazmin was referring to the reported presence of six to nine men from Mindanao who were earlier monitored to be in Manila to disrupt the Black Nazarene procession.

He stressed that the terror threat is not ordinary, which prompted President Aquino to make the report to the public last Sunday.

Aquino’s announcement of the terror plot was followed by the deployment of additional police and military units in Manila to secure the yearly religious festivities.

“In spite of the termination of the successful celebration of the Feast of the Black Nazarene, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) will continue to provide support to the Philippine National Police in terms of security, manpower, intelligence and monitoring efforts as they are still maintaining their heightened alert status against threat groups in the National Capital Region (NCR),” said AFP spokesman Col. Arnulfo Marcelo Burgos.

Burgos said the sustained military and police terror alert level, in partnership with the police, through the Joint Peace and Security Coordinating Centers (JPSCC), will not only be in Metro Manila but in the whole country.

“We call on and urge our citizens to do their part and be more vigilant because the fight against terrorism is everybody’s concern,” Burgos stressed.

Meanwhile, Rep. Leopoldo Bataoil of Pangasinan’s second district said that the President was right when he announced to the public the terror threat to the Black Nazarene procession.

Bataoil told the Media in Action forum of the Pangasinan Press Club that the presidential action was a welcome move because if he did not make the announcement people might blame him for not doing anything.

Some critics said the secretary of the Department of Interior and Local Government or the Philippine National Police (PNP) chief should have made the announcement instead of the President.

Bataoil, a retired police general, said the President did the right thing, having assessed the magnitude of the threat, then he himself announced (the threat) and that all agencies of the government should take precautions.

“The Black Nazarene procession was a soft target and very, very difficult to secure, very, very difficult to prevent if you have a very determined terrorist,” he added. – With Eva Visperas