Security stepped up for Cabinet meeting

CAMP SIONGCO, Maguindanao, Philippines – The police and military have sealed the major entry and exit points in this province and Cotabato City as part of the security measures for tomorrow’s Cabinet meeting here to be presided over by President Arroyo.

Lt. Col. Jonathan Ponce, spokesman of the Army’s 6th Infantry Division, said uniformed and plainclothes operatives of the 6th ID are deployed along the national highways crisscrossing Central Mindanao as part of the preparations.

Army bomb experts are also guarding strategic areas around this camp, the likely venue of the Cabinet meeting, which key officials of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao will attend.

Last week, two of the President’s staunchest political allies, Sulu Gov. Sakur Tan and former Maguindanao governor Datu Andal Ampatuan both survived roadside bombings near the provincial capitol of Sulu and in Shariff Aguak, Maguindanao, respectively.