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Friday, April 13, 2007
Terror alert in N. Mindanao high: police
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Oscar Calderon on Thursday directed all police personnel in Mindanao to be on alert because threats from at least three terrorist groups in the region remain high.
Calderon ordered all police officers in Mindanao to ensure that security measures are place to thwart possible plans by the Abu Sayyaf, Southeast East Asian regional terrorist Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), and al-Qaeda terror network.
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The Anti-Terrorism Task Force (ATTF) has said that terrorist threats in Western Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Central Mindanao, and Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (Armm) remain high for April.
The task force, composed of various security agencies, placed the entire Mindanao under a Terror Alert 3.
While political violence had been minimal in Misamis Oriental, there are concerns about intensified communist rebel attacks within and outside the province.
Communist New People's Army (NPA) rebels are classified by both the military and police as terrorists.
The police regional office has yet to issue a statement on this report as of Thursday.
The latest incidence of violence, terror or election-related, stemmed from an attempted shooting of a barangay official in Claveria town, Misamis Oriental.
While the provincial police office cited the attack of armed men on Barangay chairman Marcelino "Celoy" Dalen near his home in Barangay Pelaez, Claveria as a possible NPA attack, local officials there claimed politics was involved.
Claveria Mayor Paul Douglas Calingin said Dalen is an official of the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC).
The Provincial Government ordered an inquiry into the incident.
Calderon said in Manila that police forces in Mindanao must keep up their measures to ensure public safety by beefing up their intelligence operations and their day and night checkpoints to deter plans by the three terrorist groups and even by the NPA.
The NPA, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), has stepped up atrocities in the countryside. It has been included by the US in its list of foreign terrorist organizations in 2004.
ATTF officials said the threat of terrorism in Metro Manila for this month remains moderate.
They said under Level 3, public safety measures would be implemented to ensure that terrorist conspiracies are duly checked and preempted.
Calderon has directed regional directors in Metro Manila and in Mimaropa (Mindoro, Marinduque, Romblon and Palawan) to ensure that all government and other vital installations like communications facilities and power lines are guarded. (Stephen Capillas of Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. (April 13, 2007 issue)
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