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THE
National Police has beefed up security and intelligence
operations in Metro Manila as Terrorism Alert Level 3
was raised in the metropolis by the antiterrorism task
force.
The task
forced raised the heightened alert level allegedly owing
to the “high level of terrorist threat” generated this
month by the Asean Ministerial Meeting and the impending
state-of-the-nation address of President Arroyo before
Congress.
Director
General Oscar Calderon, National Police chief, ordered
the Metro Manila police commander, Director Reynaldo
Varilla, to intensify operations and increase security
in Metro Manila especially in Pasay City, and around the
Batasan complex in Quezon City.
Calderon
also directed police units in
Mindanao, to beef up security despite the task force’s lowering of
terrorist threat in the region from extreme level to
high level, after determining that the series of
bombings there, especially in
Central
Mindanao, were perpetrated just to extort money from
business owners.
Calderon
said that the antiterrorism task force reported that the
Abu Sayyaf is consolidating its forces in Sulu, for
kidnap-for-ransom activities in order to raise funds.
The task
force said that Central Mindanao-based foreign terrorist
Zulkipli Bin Hir, alias Marwan, principal suspect in
some of the bombings in the region, had already moved to
Sulu and joined the group of Abu Sayyaf commander
Isnilon Hapilon.
The
transfer of Marwan to Sulu, police said, was forced by
the government’s pressure on the Moro Islamic Liberation
Front to expel terrorists in areas where it maintains a
significant presence.
Meanwhile, Muslim clerics in
Mindanao urged President Arroyo to suspend the implementation of the Human
Security Act of 2007 that takes effect on July 15.
Islamic
leaders and ordinary people in
Mindanao have no substantial idea on the content of the law, said
Ustadz Esmael Ebrahim, senior associate of the Dharul
Ifta (House of Opinion) in the Autonomous Region in
Muslim Mindanao.
“We fear
that it might be used by the military and the police to
violate our rights. From the start, they suspect that
ulamas have links with terror groups,” Ebrahim said.
“We are
asking the government to reconsider the implementation
of the law,” he added.
Religious Muslims in Mindanao, opposed any form of
terrorism, saying it has no place in Islam, but
terrorist activities go on in the area just the same.
“We can
only hope that this law will not be used to violate our
rights,” Ebrahim said.
President Arroyo earlier called the law a vital
cornerstone in the country’s fight against global
terrorism since terrorism would now be considered a
crime.
Under
the law, the crime of terrorism includes piracy in
general or mutiny in high seas; rebellion or
insurrection; coup d’etat, including acts committed by
private persons; murder; kidnapping and serious illegal
detention and other crimes involving destruction such as
arson.
--With R. Maitem |
