Manila on heightened alert after Basilan blast
MANILA, Philippines — Metro Manila has been placed under heightened alert status following a car bomb attack in Basilan that left 11 people dead, Chief Superintendent Guillermo Eleazar confirmed Thursday.
Additional checkpoints will be placed in Metro Manila and police presence will be heightened in public places, according to a report from News 5.
Eleazar, who is chief of the National Capital Region Police Office, also clarified that they have not received reports of any security threats in the capital.
LOOK: The Manila Police District's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team is on heightened alert following the Basilan bombing that left 11 people dead. pic.twitter.com/elAJsobyJL
— The Philippine Star (@PhilippineStar) August 2, 2018
The Armed Forces of the Philippines earlier dismissed the claims of the Islamic State that they were behind the bombing in Basilan.
“They are claiming everything. Even what happened in Manila, they were claiming to have had a hand in it. They are doing it to heighten the support and to show that they are still there,” Gen. Carlito Galvez, AFP chief, said.
The attack ocurred at around 5:50 a.m. on July 31, when a van earlier flagged down at a checkpoint exploded while being inspected by soldiers in Lamitan City, Basilan.
A soldier and five members of CAFGU were instantly killed while inspecting the vehicle, the AFP said in statement released Tuesday.
"While we commend our troops, we condemn in the highest possoble terms this yet anither dastardly attempt of terrorists to kill, maim and injure innocent civilians," the AFP said.
Galvez had discounted the possibility that the supposed suicide bomber was a foreigner but an anti-terror official maintained that attacker was a foreigner and identified the slain suspect as Abu Kathir Al-Maghrib, a Moroccan jihadist, The STAR reported.
Some officials said that the driver of the van was just a courier of the bomb.
“So it is not conclusive that it was a suicide bomber and it’s not conclusive the suspect was a foreigner,” Galvez said. — Patricia Lourdes Viray
Philippine military officials say a bomb explosion killed a soldier, five militiamen and four villagers amid threats of bombings in a southern province.
Regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Gerry Besana says one other government militiaman was wounded in the blast after dawn that shattered a part of the barricades surrounding an army militia outpost in the village of Colonia on the island province of Basilan.
Besana said the security clampdown included setting up road checkpoints, which allowed troops to stop the suspicious van.
The villagers who died in the explosion included relatives of militiamen assigned at the outpost. — AP
Authorities have arrested a cleric named Indalin Jainul in connection with Tuesday's deadly bomb attack in Lamitan City.
The 58-year-old Jainuil resides in Lamitan City's Barangay Maganda, which is near the spot where a van loaded with explosives went off, killing 10 people, one of them an Army Ranger.
Four of the fatalities were members of the Citizens Armed Forces Geographical Unit.
Relatives and friends of Jainul have denied insinuations he was one of the plotters of the bombing, Basilan’s worst in contemporary years. — The STAR/John Unson
The Clark International Airport Corp. announces it is implementing heightened security measures in response to the bombing in Basilan on Tuesday.
CIAC president Alexander Cauguiran says Security Condition or SECO Level 2 is being implemented at the airport. "Flight operations are not affected and the (security) enhancement is our proactive approach to ensuring public safety," he says in a release.
All vehicles and people passing through airport premises will be subjected to full inspection. Car trunks, baggage and cargo will also be thoroughly screened. Roving security agents have also been deployed throughout the complex.
The Islamic State's Amaq News Agency says the group is behind the blast in Basilan, SITE Intelligence Group reports.
The Islamic State claiming responsibility does not make it true.
The terrorist group also reportedly claimed responsibility an incident in June 2017 in the Resorts World Manila entertainment complex in Pasay City. Authorities later determined to have been the work of a former government employee who had a problem with debts and gambling.
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