Pinoys urged to remember lessons of Sept. 11 attacks

MANILA, Philippines - Malacañang reminded the people yesterday that the lessons of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States “should never be forgotten” and that there should be no letup in the fight against terrorism.

“In moving forward, we have placed an emphasis not just on working with law enforcement agencies here in the Philippines but also with anti-terrorism units from other countries,” deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.

“And you have seen that that cooperation has borne fruit in some of the successful operations that we’ve had. So terrorism being a global fight, we have always been of the position that we cannot work in isolation but, however, we work with other agencies whose aims are similar to ours,” Valte said.

Valte said there were several initiatives that had been in place “that we would not be at liberty to discuss at this time” but “rest assured that these initiatives are still ongoing.”

The US military claimed that the anti-terrorism campaign of the Philippine and American forces against al-Qaeda linked terror groups in Mindanao has been successful, 11 years after the terrorist attacks in the US.

Lt. Col. Randolf Cabangbang, spokesman for the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said the US military through its Joint Special Operations Task Force-Philippines (JSOTF-P) was deployed in the southern Philippines to train and assist Filipino troops in the anti-terrorism campaign.

He explained that the US forces were invited to help train anti-terrorist units of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) after several terrorists involved in the attack on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon building in West Virginia were reported to have conducted training in rebel camps in Mindanao. The JSOTF-P was set up in 2002 as part of the Phl-US Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) one year after the 9/11 attacks in the US. Cabangbang said the training and technical assistance provided by the US through the JSOTF-P have resulted in the killing or arrest of most senior leaders of the Abu Sayyaf group and even Jemaah Islamiyah (JI), the Indonesia-based terrorist network in Southeast Asia that had local terror cells.

“They (US JSOTF-P) have considered their work as very successful. The terror cells were prevented from using the area as their breeding ground,” Cabangbang said.

“No more training of radicals and those who are willing to fight to death. This is a strong indication (of the success in the anti-terror campaign) after the 9/11 attack,” Cabangbang added. 

Meanwhile, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) was placed on red alert yesterday as a precaution to the commemoration of 9/11 terror attacks in the US.

NBI spokesperson Cecilio Zamora said the implementation of the tightened security was simply a precaution for any untoward incident that may coincide with the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

“There are no threats. This is just a precaution. Almost every agency is on alert today,” Zamora said. – With Janvic Mateo, Roel Pareño