Task force vs terror created

President Arroyo has created a task force to guard vital infrastructure from terrorist attacks, an official Malacañang statement said yesterday.

The Task Force for the Security of Critical Infrastructure was formally created on Sept. 24, the statement said. It will operate under the Cabinet Oversight Committee for Internal Security, headed by Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo.

Power plants and transmission and distribution facilities, communications facilities, oil and gas depots, key public works and some public and private buildings in the "nerve center" of commerce and security are covered by the task force.

Deputy presidential adviser for special concerns Abraham Purugganan, a former military officer implicated in bloody rightist coup attempts in the 1980s but who was later granted amnesty as part of a peace agreement, will head the task force, the Palace statement said.

The unveiling of the task force came after Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill warned that the terrorist network Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) may start to focus more heavily on the Philippines, which has many potential "soft targets."

It also came amid increased security preparations for the visit on Oct. 18 of US President George W. Bush.

In her weekly radio address, Mrs. Arroyo said that Southeast Asian leaders, as well as representatives of China, India, Japan and South Korea, committed to fight regional terrorism in the just-concluded summit of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in Indonesia.

"We are not avoiding the fact that the region is vulnerable to attack by terrorists. This does not need to be emphasized further. What must be done is to face up to our responsibility of facing this worldwide threat," she said.

She cited the recent capture in the southern Philippines of Omar Lasal Opik, one of two Muslim militants who escaped from a Camp Crame prison with Indonesian JI bomber Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi three months ago.

Mrs. Arroyo said she hoped the arrest of Opik "will improve our chances of capturing al-Ghozi."

"We are sharpening and improving our cooperation within ASEAN to stop the terrorists who cross our common borders," the President added.

ASEAN includes Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, as well as the Philippines.

Muslim guerrillas in the southern Philippines are alleged to have links with the JI and the al-Qaeda terror network of Osama bin Laden.

Local Muslim militants, with JI assistance, carried out a series of bombings of strategic areas in Manila in December 2000 that left 22 people dead. — AFP