Thursday, November 15, 2007 Be calm, stay away from crowded areas: Vidal
REMAIN calm and avoid crowded places. That was the advice of Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal after Tuesday night’s bombing of the south wing of the Batasan Pambansa complex in Quezon City.
Police placed Central Visayas on full alert, the highest level of security preparedness, after the bombing.
Vidal was in Manila and had just finished celebrating a mass when the bomb exploded, killing Basilan Rep. Wahab Akbar and three others.
“I’m very sad about it and I’m worried of what the results of the incident could be. I hope it will not make things worse,” he told Sun.Star Cebu yesterday.
Vidal urged priests to pray for the country when he celebrated a homecoming mass for more than 300 alumni priests of the Seminario Mayor de San Carlos yesterday.
“My brother priests, after this (gathering), let us hurry home and meet with our own people, who in the days to come may not be able to rejoice at all because of what’s happening to our country,” he said.
An hour after the explosion, Cebu Provincial Police Office Director Carmelo Valmoria placed Cebu on heightened alert. It was upgraded to full alert after the directive from the Police Regional Office 7.
Valmoria said Cebu is relatively safe and they have not monitored any planned attacks. But, he said, this was not a reason to be complacent. Aside from ordering all personnel to be in the police stations and conduct random checkpoints, he also told them to monitor vital installations in their respective areas.
Cebu City Police Office Director Patrocinio Comendador said the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) was instructed to check all public facilities in the city. They were also ordered to patrol Cebu City Hall, the legislative building and the Cebu Provincial Capitol.
Comendador said he told MPG members to pay special attention to parked cars in the areas.
With the explosion, Comendador is urging all security officers to implement “more appropriate security measures.”
At the Capitol, Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia ordered the doubling of security inside the compound.
Security at the Capitol compound had been tightened when mayoral bet Rogelio Ilustrisimo Sr. was shot dead inside it days before the May 14 elections.
Garcia ordered stricter inspection of vehicles going into the compound as well as checking of bags of visitors entering Capitol offices.
“I was shocked beyond belief that it could actually happen in Congress where we have representatives from all over the Philippines.” Garcia said.
The governor said she heard about the incident a few minutes after the explosion and immediately checked on the safety of her father, 2nd district Rep. Pablo Garcia, and brother, 3rd district Rep. Pablo John Garcia. The two Garcias, however, left through the main entrance of the House of Representatives.
Garcia said she expected police and other law enforcement agencies to do what is needed to deal with the crisis and offers them her full support, being the chairperson of the Regional Peace and Order Council.
At Cebu City Hall, Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that despite the attack, he is still optimistic that the country’s economy will continue to soar.
“Our peso is going very strong, incidents happen here and there but it’s business as usual for everyone else. So I hope it remains that way. I guess it reaches a point where we can say why should we let it affect us?” he told reporters yesterday.
The mayor said he sees the Philippines becoming like Italy in the ’70s, when instability in the government, the resurgence of the Mafia and terrorist attacks did not affect its economy.
“We’ve been through this before and this can happen anywhere. So far I don’t see any sign of panicking and I don’t see a reason why we should panic... We will have a booming economy under the worst political situation,” he continued.
In Cebu City, he said police have gotten reports about movements of terrorist groups, but all of them still have to be verified.
The House of Representatives, meanwhile, resumed session yesterday.
Deputy Speaker Raul del Mar said 10 committees went on with their hearings and session was held amid tight security at the complex.
“We were not cowed into submission to any threat of terrorism. We continue to do our work and we will not let anything stop us from doing our work,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
He urged all government agencies and the private sector to put in place stricter security measures in their buildings.
“Aside from the security measures, law enforcement agencies should also improve intelligence gathering mechanisms as a preventive measure, even before certain groups can carry out their plans,” del Mar said.
In Lapu-Lapu City, police tightened security at the two bridges and at the gas depots of major oil companies. Movements in these areas will be monitored round the clock, police said.
“I’d like to make an assurance that Lapu-Lapu is under control,” City Polie Chief Louie Oppus said in a mobile phone interview after his briefing with officials of the Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority yesterday morning.
Airport officials, he said, did not ask for reinforcement, assuring him that security at the airport can be handled by their own workers. (MEA/LCR/NRC/with MBG/AIV)
