High alert sounded at Sual Coal Plant

SUAL, Pangasinan – The police and the military in this province are now on heightened alert status as their intelligence units have received warnings against possible attacks from rebel groups.

Both police provincial director Senior SuperintendentArturo Cacdac Jr. and Maj. Marcial Constante, chief of the 48th Infantry Battalion, confirmed to the local media these threats during a security briefing and plant tour attended by Gov. Victor Agbayani at the Sual coal-fired power plant in this town Thursday. However, both Cacdac and Constante could not specify the "threats" which they classified only as "general threats."

Cacdac said they are not at liberty to disclose them.

During the briefing with Agbayani and Bob Walker, Sual plant station manager, Cacdac identified the groups as the re- affirmist groups of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP)/New People’s Army (NPA) on the eastern part of Pangasinan and those belonging to the rejectionist group of the Rebolusyonaryong Hukbong Bayan on the western side.

"We are preparing for the worst case scenario so that in case something happens, we will be able to confront it effectively," he said, adding that the number is not the determining factor of their capability to stage any attack.

Walker said he has not received any communication about any attempt of CPP/NPA groups to extort revolutionary taxes from the management under Mirant Philippines, Inc. But he said, because of the tighter security measures they are adopting in the wake of the reported "threats," they will evaluate carefully requests from various groups for a plant tour of the coal-fired power station to "make sure that there will be no untoward incident which can happen."

Agbayani said everybody has become security-conscious even prior to the Sept. 11 incident in the US and the tragic occurrence in Bali, Indonesia.

"We can’t be caught flat-footed ," the governor said adding that he will schedule another plant tour and security briefing for the San Roque Multi-purpose Dam Project in San Manuel town which is now almost complete.

"We are responding such that we should be prepared for any eventuality. We are not looking at any specific threat but at the general atmosphere not only in the Philippines but in the entire world."

"Everybody is on his toes and so should we be," Agbayani said. Agbayani also said he will validate a statement made by the Philippine Association of Recording Industry whose members recently destroyed voluminous pirated VCDs in front of the Capitol building in this town that proceeds from the sale of pirated VCDs are used to finance clandestine operations of Muslim Filipinos, many of whom are plying their trade in Pangasinan.