No specific threats

This is to clarify the article entitled “Palace: Info still raw on plot to kill pope,” the banner story of your paper’s Jan. 25, 2015 issue.

As President Aquino said during his televised briefing prior to the papal visit, intelligence activities conducted found no specific threats against the safety of Pope Francis, and only general threats arising from the expected attendance of massive crowds during papal events.

During my radio briefing last Saturday, I mentioned that our security officials received a raw and unverified piece of information that had no specific details. Aurea Calica’s article correctly reflects this. However, Calica also claimed that there were two assassination attempts against Pope Francis. The relevant paragraphs are copied below:

A former military intelligence officer claimed there were two attempts to assassinate the  pope during his visit in the Philippines — one in Manila and the other in Tacloban, Leyte.

The unnamed former officer claimed that four plotters with links to Islamic militant group al Oaeda were nearly cornered by Manila police hours before the papal mass at the Quirino Grandstand last Jan. 18. The plotters, the former officer said, managed to slip away in the ensuing commotion.

There is no truth to the allegation of the unnamed and anonymous source. The PNP and AFP both deny there was an incident wherein four supposed plotters were allegedly nearly cornered hours before the Papal Mass at Quirino Grandstand. These are outright fabrications that should automatically be suspect due to the unverifiable credibility of the source.

I hope this letter finds space in your paper and website so that the clarification may be made known to your readers. Thank you. — Abigail Valte, Deputy Presidential Spokesperson