The Philippine National Police (PNP) is tracking the movements of foreigners suspected to have links with terrorist groups as part of heightened security for the arrival of Pope Francis this week.
The move is being
implemented amid a global security alert following the terrorist attack on a
newspaper office and Jewish supermarket in Paris Australia
A highly placed
source told The STAR that the PNP-Regional Investigation and Detection
Management Division (RIDMD) has issued a memorandum to all police district
offices nationwide to submit a report on the number of foreign suspects in
their custody and the status of the cases.
The order was
issued to monitor and track down possible terrorist cells and “sleepers” who
might create trouble during the papal visit, the source said, adding that
monitoring is focused particularly on citizens of one Asian nation.
Sleepers are
persons who remain dormant members of a terrorist cell but are ready to act on
short notice.
“Some of these
people could be here as students or businessmen. Whatever their cover might be,
we will be thoroughly checking them out as part of our measures,” the source
said.
He said the
intelligence community is also in constant contact with different government
agencies, particularly the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in relation to
the security measures being prepared for the visit of Pope Francis.
At least five
police chiefs in different cities in Metro Manila denied having knowledge of
the memorandum or if they were ever sent one by Camp Crame
Even Northern
Police District director Chief Superintendent Jonathan Miano, reportedly part
of the brain trust for security preparations, denied there was such a memo.
A document
obtained by The STAR, however, showed that the memorandum, dated Jan. 5, was
addressed to all police chiefs nationwide.
The source said
the denial of all police officials concerned was understandable, considering
the magnitude of the security measures being laid down to avoid any incident
that would cause embarrassment to the country.
The Armed Forces
of the Philippines (AFP) earlier said that the 12,000-strong military is on
high alert, while Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin noted that the government
is “well prepared” and on top of the situation for the papal visit from Jan. 15
to 19.
The terror attack
on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo sparked fears of similar acts of
violence by local terrorist groups like Abu Sayyaf and the Khilafa Islamiyah
Mindanao, which have links to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria
(ISIS).
Avoiding a repeat of Oplan Bojinka
The PNP also
resolved not to take any chances and do everything it could to protect Pope
Francis during his five-day stay in the country to avoid a repeat of the 1995
Bojinka plot, the source told The STAR.
Oplan Bojinka was
a large-scale three-phase plan hatched by extremists Ramzi Yousef and Khalid
Sheikh Mohammed to assassinate Pope John Paul II, then visiting Manila for the
celebration of World Youth Day; to bomb several airliners flying to the United
States; and to attack the Central Intelligence Agency by crashing an airplane
on its headquarters in Fairfax County in Virginia.
Yousef and
Mohammed, believed to be members of terrorist group al-Qaeda, initially planted
bombs in a shopping mall in Cebu City and another in a movie theater in Makati Makati
Another bomb was
planted in a Philippine Airlines plane, which led to one fatality and about 10
casualties and causing nearly enough damage to destroy the aircraft.
The Bojinka plot
– supposedly a precursor to the 9/11 attack in the World Trade Center in 2001 –
fizzled out after a fire broke out on Jan. 6, 1995 at the six-story Doña Josefa
apartments in Malate where Yousef and Mohammed were billeted.
Pope John Paul II
was then scheduled to arrive in the country on Jan. 12, 1995.
According to
reports at the time, a certain Abdul Hakim Murad started the fire shortly
before 11 p.m. in the kitchen of Room 603.
The police then
decided to investigate the situation, having been suspicious due to the recent
wave of bombings, and eventually discovered evidence such as fake passports,
street maps of Manila
The PNP will
ensure that “none of this kind will occur during the visit (of Pope Francis),” the
source told The STAR.
“The problem,
however, is that monitoring these people is like looking for a needle in a
haystack. But we are relying on the intelligence community, including of course
the AFP and the Filipino people,” he said.
He added that
ordinary citizens could help protect the pontiff by reporting any suspicious
characters in their areas to the police.
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/12/15/pnp-monitors-suspected-sleeper-agents
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