THE National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Sunday is under heightened alert, following the discovery of a plan to be attacked on Jan. 31, a television report said.

The NBI recovered last Jan. 24 a code of message at the second floor of Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan, stating its bureau together with the Supreme Court will be attacked on Jan. 31 at 3 a.m.

Regional Director Ricardo Diaz, chief of the NBI Counter Terrorism Unit, said the heightened alert was aimed at thwarting any attack.

But Diaz still described the discovery as mere scare tactics to force the government to transfer Datu Unsay Mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. from his NBI detention cell to Camp Crame.

Diaz said it was possible that those behind the scare tactics wanted to create a scenario to force the government to transfer Andal Jr. to another facility.

While he described the incident as a mere scare tactic, Diaz said the bureau will not take any chances. He said the NBI expanded the coverage of security measures to the SC.

Diaz said the NBI beefed up its security to secure Andal Jr. and to foil any attempt to spring him from the bureau prison, since day one of his detention at the NBI headquarters. (Tashuana Alemania/Sunnex)