AFP and PNP agree: No report of bomb threat in metro

Both the Defense department and the National Police on Monday denied receiving information that Muslim extremists were planning bomb attacks in Metro Manila to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz Jr denied that the military has received "reports on a specific threat" such as the reported entry of two bombers from the Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) in the Philippine capital. "I have asked the deputy military chief for intelligence to check on the details of that newspaper report," Cruz told reporters in Filipino. Director General Oscar Calderon, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), similarly denied receiving such information but nonetheless ordered regional directors to intensify intelligence operations. He also ordered law enforcers to increase police visibility and to conduct more stringent security measures at the country's airport terminals. Senior Superintendent Samuel Pagdilao Jr, spokesman of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the report may have taken information from old articles and used these as part of the article supposedly timed for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. The Northern Luzon-based RSM is a group of radical Muslim converts with purported links to the Southeast Asian extremist cell Jema'ah Islamiyah (JI) as well as the Abu Sayyaf bandit group. Both the JI and the Abu Sayyaf are suspected of working with the al-Qaeda terror network, believed to be the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. RSM leader Hilarion Santos has been in government custody since October last year. While denying the reported bomb threat, Cruz said it was "standard operating procedure" for the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and the PNP to raise their alert levels during this time of the year. "Right now we have not received information of any specific threat relating to anybody bombing Metro Manila but as we near September 11, the vigilance and alertness of the AFP and the PNP goes up," Cruz said. The Defense secretary earlier in the day skipped a Senate inquiry on the massive oil spill in Central Philippines. Interviewed over radio station dzBB, metropolitan police chief Director Reynaldo Varilla said no reports have reached his office pertaining to the supposed terror attacks in Manila in two weeks' time. Still, Varilla said his men are on alert against any possible terror attacks.-with a report from Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV