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Thursday, October 23, 2003
Alert out on terrorists who may come to city
By Gwen P. Posadas
DAVAO -- Authorities are on the alert for five to 10 suspected terrorists who reportedly plan to enter Davao City and possibly conduct atrocities, said an officer of Task Force Davao.
The suspected terrorists are possibly members of the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), Abu Sayyaf and rogue factions of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), said Capt. Ralph dela Cruz of the task force.
A senior military official is also concerned some JI members hiding in the country may flee across the southern maritime border following a renewed government crackdown.
Lt. Gen. Rodolfo Garcia, military vice chief of staff, said a captured JI suspect, Indonesian Taufiq Rifqi, told interrogators there were at least 30 JI members in the country now, down from about 40 in 1999.
Dela Cruz, however, said they do not have any idea as to whether the five to 10 terrorists planning to wreak havoc here are already in the city.
Garcia also said the international terror group JI is scouting for training grounds in Southeast Asia.
He added that the military recognizes the JI threat as very real.
30 JI militants
According to Garcia, it is even possible some JI leaders are in the country to recruit and train new members, citing the arrest of Rifqi, allegedly JI's number two man, in Cotabato a few weeks ago.
Rifqi's capture in the south three weeks ago led to the raid on a suspected JI hideout in Cotabato City on Sunday that yielded suspected bomb-making equipment, added Garcia.
However, suspected foreign and local JI members fled the hideout.
Rifqi revealed to the government that several of the 30 JI militants in this country had undergone terrorist training here.
"They have their training staff in country but he said these transit from the Philippines to other parts" of the world, Garcia recounted without elaborating.
Task Force Davao officer dela Cruz, on the other hand, said they received information that terrorists were planning some atrocities in Davao City even before al-Ghozi was killed a shootout in the Mindanao town of Pigkawayan and the visit of US President George W. Bush.
The group is now intensifying its information gathering on the presence of the terror group, not only in Davao City but in adjacent cities and municipalities such as Tagum and Sta. Cruz, which could be used as the staging points of terrorists because of their proximity to the city here.
Poorly patrolled
Military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Daniel Lucero conceded in a separate interview that "our southern backdoor is so porous that anybody can just go in and out of our territory without much effort."
The Philippines shares a poorly patrolled sea border with Malaysia and Indonesia.
And "now that there is pressure on them and they have felt it with al-Ghozi and the neutralization of Taufik and this raid" in Cotabato, "it may be a possibility that several of them may make a quick getaway in our southern backdoor to look for safer places," added Garcia.
Lucero said the military did not have enough assets to monitor the border so intruders "can enter (with) impunity."
He said the military continued to hunt for suspected JI members in the central part of the main southern island of Mindanao after the raid in Cotabato.
In the past, officials have charged that JI members are undergoing training in camps of the local Muslim separatist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF). However, the MILF has denied this.
JI is a Southeast Asian Islamic network that seeks to set up a pan-Islamic state across much of the region. It is blamed for a series of bombings in various Southeast Asian countries, including last year's Bali blasts that killed 202 people.
The United States considers the JI to be regional allies of the al-Qaeda terror network blamed for the September 11, 2001 terror attacks against the United States. (With AFP)
(October 23, 2003 issue)
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