Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Police, military downplays terror threat from JI, RSM in Metro Manila

By Ronron
August 28, 2007

The commanders of the police and military in Metro Manila are downplaying reports that the Al Qaeda-linked Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) and Rajah Solaiman Movement (RSM) will launch terrorist attacks in the coming days.

Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) National Capital Region Command (NCRCOM) chief Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ben Dolorfino said Tuesday that there are no warm bodies of terrorists currently in the capital.

“There is no concrete information to that effect, although we are not discounting it because as the saying goes, when there’s smoke, there must be fire,” he told reporters.

“There is no direct threat. I can tell our people that they can freely roam around the city, go to the malls,” added National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Deputy Director General Reynaldo Varilla.

On August 24, the Eastern Police District (EPD) issued a memorandum to all its police stations to validate intelligence reports that the JI and RSM will attack malls and gasoline stations in Metro Manila.

The document also directed the police stations to verify the report that the terrorists are using a safehouse in Quezon City, Taguig City or Makati City./DMS

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