EDITORYAL - Prime target

You can’t blame Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill for singling out the Philippines as a prime target for terrorist attacks by Jemaah Islamiyah, a group that has been linked to al-Qaeda. Australian Prime Minister John Howard, after all, was in Manila on July 17 when Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi escaped from the headquarters of the Philippine National Police together with two members of the Abu Sayyaf.

One of the Abu Sayyaf members has been killed by government troops; the other has just been recaptured. But there’s still no sign of Al-Ghozi, and it’s not farfetched to suspect that he is plotting yet another attack on the scale of the bombings he helped stage in Metro Manila on Dec. 30, 2000 that left 22 people dead.

The Australian defense minister said Manila is rich in Western-style soft targets that JI tends to hit: nightclubs, restaurants, hotels frequented by foreigners. But we already know this, and awareness of the threat should have increased since the nightclub bombings in Bali in October last year that killed 202 people, nearly half of them Australians. Did vigilance of Philippine security forces improve with the heightened awareness of the threat? Obviously not in the safekeeping of terrorists. In the months after the Bali attacks, the Philippines also suffered several bombings, mostly in Mindanao.

Tightening security around soft targets in Asia’s most freewheeling democracy can be tricky; the government is accused of planning martial law even before additional security forces are called in. Police and military forces are also stretched thin, battling communist and Muslim separatist rebels and tackling kidnappers, bank robbers and other criminals.

The threat posed by JI is real, however, and it cannot be ignored especially after the Philippines was officially designated as a special "non-NATO ally" of the United States in the war on terror. That classification gives the Philippines certain privileges in dealing with the world’s lone superpower. But it also brings with it burdens and responsibilities, among which is the need to improve security measures around potential terrorist targets.

The nation can’t afford to let down its guard. Lacking resources and manpower, the government will need the cooperation of civic groups and the citizenry to thwart terrorism. A little public vigilance can go a long way in stopping a determined bomber.