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Monday, August 14, 2006
Editorial: High tech terror
PEOPLE cynical about the performance of the Cagayan de Oro City Police Office (COCPO) will always expect the worst but City Police Director Aurelio Trampe's admission that the city police are incapable of dealing with terrorism leaves more than a few goose bumps on the skin.
Especially at the onset of the fiesta season where there are hundreds of thousands of visitors expected to arrive in Cagayan de Oro to partake of the annual festivities. The city fiesta is especially significant owing to the election season and President Arroyo is said to visit Cagayan de Oro for this purpose.
It is precisely the fiesta fever and the heat of the election season, which are being counted on by the terrorists to sow their own brand of havoc and deliver a message to allies of the US.
For anyone bothering to monitor the news, the interception by British airport authorities of liquid explosives and the arrest of several suspected Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) militants means the JI and its mother organization, the Al Qaeda terror group, will make sure they will exact their vengeance on American allied nations.
The country being a staunch American ally makes it vulnerable to terror attacks. And what better way to send the message of terror than to inflict havoc and mayhem on a public occasion like a city fiesta?
Though the regional PNP-10 office said the incidence of terror attacks are minimal at best here in Cagayan de Oro and in Region 10, Trampe's admission is not just based on an honest assessment of the city police's personnel shortage as well as technical and personnel inadequacy but also on the recognition that terrorists of today have employed means of terrorism that even the most advanced nations are having a hard time dealing with.
By now most of us are familiar with the difficulty of detecting liquid explosives, leading to further restrictions on air travel. But what does prevent the terrorists from transporting the explosives elsewhere; by boat, by bus even by mail?
In this regard though, with the advancement in technology comes the increasing need for old fashioned vigilance and sharp monitoring are now the best safeguards for terror attacks.
And this can be done by the communities at large who can make up for the absence of spy cameras and sophisticated detection machines with close coordination with the government authorities.
At least that's the most realistic thing people in this day and age can do.
(August 14, 2006 issue)
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