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Saturday, March 13, 2004
Major terror raid 'imminent'
MANILA -- President Arroyo fears a major terrorist attack may be imminent in the country and has asked neighbors for information to help her fight the threat, a top security adviser said Friday.
Arroyo said the train bombings in Madrid prove the ferocity of terrorism and the need to continue the campaign against terrorism.
Arroyo made the statement as she ordered the Philippine embassy in Spain to coordinate with other nations in providing assistance to victims and in locating possible Filipino victims in the incident.
"I join the whole of humanity in expressing our outrage over this incident and out grief to the families of the victims. Our sympathy with the Spanish people is deepened by our common history, friendship and culture," she said.
"Once more, this incident marks the ferocity and randomness by which terrorism strikes. We must and we shall never let our guard down especially at a time when democracy is undergoing a test in various places of the world," she added.
The President called for heightened vigilance both here and abroad following the deadly bomb blasts in Madrid, which her government condemned as a "dastardly, cowardly attack."
National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the attack would likely come from Muslim militants, blamed for bombings at an airport and a port in Davao City early last year that killed 38 people.
There has been no other major terrorist action in the country since then, but Gonzales said a fresh wave of deadly attacks in other countries suggests that "we have to be far more vigilant."
A number of Western governments have issued a spate of travel advisories in recent days, warning their citizens of potential terrorist action in the largely Roman Catholic Southeast Asian nation.
Gonzales said Manila has quietly stepped up security at seaports and airports ahead of the dry season months of March and May, when travel will be at its peak.
"The targets are civilian, the targets are tourists. We are putting safety measures in all seaports and airports," he told a Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines forum.
He said Manila was sending a police mission to Malaysia to interrogate suspected Indonesian militants recently arrested after allegedly completing training at a camp supposedly run by Filipino Muslim rebels on the southern island of Mindanao.
The government also plans to ask Jakarta to allow it to interrogate certain detained militants, Gonzales added.
Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, meanwhile, called on the defense and security authorities to remain on guard to prevent a possible spillover of violence into the country.
Pangilinan also said the Senate condemns in the strongest terms the horrible attacks.
"We condemn in the strongest terms the horrible terrorist attack against Spain.
This despicable assault is not only a direct affront to the basic principles of western democracy but also bespeaks of a shameless disregard for human life," Pangilinan said in his statement.
Deputy presidential spokesman Ricardo Saludo said there is still no official report of Filipino victims in the bombing, although two Philippine nationals have been reported missing. Saludo said the Department of Foreign Affairs is closely monitoring the development in Madrid.
Over a hundred persons were killed while more than four hundred were injured by four near simultaneous explosions that rocked the Madrid train stations Thursday.
Pangilinan said whether the notorious Al-Qaeda or the Basque separatists are behind the dreadful attack, such an act of terror is an assault to human rights and must be condemned at all times.
(March 13, 2004 issue)
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