RP now under medium terror alert

Security officials have raised the country’s alert level from "normal" to "medium" after British security forces foiled an alleged terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up several US-bound airliners in mid-flight.

President Arroyo has ordered anti-terrorism security officials and law enforcement agencies and the military to map out measures to prevent possible terror attacks.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said the foiled attack in London and the conflict in Lebanon have prompted Philippine security forces to brace for a possible spillover of extremist Muslim sentiments in the country.

A senior anti-terrorism official said security at all possible terrorist targets has been tightened following the foiled plot. "We are now on medium alert," said the official, who asked not to be named because of the nature of his job. He declined to give details.

Security was tightened at Asian airports yesterday in the aftermath of a foiled plot to bomb flights bound for the United States with liquid explosives carried in hand luggage.

In the Philippines, it wasn’t the first time that Manila’s international airport has had to worry about liquid explosives. A 1995 plot to use them to bring down a dozen planes led to restrictions on liquids and aerosol products that were later eased.

In January 1995, a similar plot to bomb US-bound aircraft was hatched in Manila by Ramzi Yousef — the alleged mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center bombing - who was convicted in a US trial in 1996 for the plot, along with Abdul Hakim Murad and Wali Khan Amin Shah.

Yousef also was found guilty of killing a Japanese passenger with a liquid bomb on a Philippines Airlines jet in 1994 that US prosecutors called a test run.

That plot, dubbed "Project Bojinka," was the first sign that large-scale plane attacks were being considered by terror groups. It was foiled by Murad’s arrest in January 1995 after fire broke out in the apartment he shared with Yousef, who fled to Pakistan where he was arrested a month later.

Upon instructions from the President, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita convened Malacañang’s Anti-Terrorism Task Force, which he chairs. The panel is made up of officials from various law enforcement agencies and the military.

Ermita said the intelligence arms of the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippine National Police, other law enforcement agencies and the military have been ordered to keep a tighter watch against terrorist attacks.

"The government is taking extra precautions and we would like to appeal to the public to cooperate with the authorities and to bear with the inconvenience as we continue to work hard to ensure the safety of all our citizens," Ermita said in a statement issued by Malacañang.

Gonzales said Israel’s offensive in Lebanon aimed at rooting out Hezbollah militants has raised emotional issues among Muslims worldwide. Militant and extremist groups might capitalize on the outrage over the deaths of Lebanese civilians killed in Israeli attacks.

"We are anticipating the spillover," Gonzales said. He wants to meet with other security officials "so that we can discuss among our various intelligence units the situation on the ground and what needs to be done."

"I think in a way we’re fortunate because our people are used to the kind of measures that we are already implementing these past many months. So the infrastructure for preventive measures are already in place," he said.

"There is no 100-percent protection against terrorism. There is always the possibility that something might slip through. But at the same time, fortunately for us in this country, we have been prepared. We have been confronting terrorism for several years already," Gonzales said.

The government is battling the Abu Sayyaf and Indonesia-based Jemaah Islamiyah, both linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, as well as the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

The NPA and the CPP are also on the US government blacklist of terrorist organizations.

The Abu Sayyaf is notorious for ransom kidnappings, beheadings and bombings, including a February 2004 attack that gutted a ferry in Manila Bay and killed 116 people in one of Southeast Asia’s worst terrorist attacks. — With Helen Flores, James Mananghaya, Pia Lee-Brago