Manila: Mobile communications were disrupted by authorities as part of security measures as Catholics mark an annual religious rite amid reports of a terror plot to disrupt the event.
Telecom services by the country's two top mobile cellular carriers, Globe and Smart, had been disrupted for several hours while on-site communications by the police and authorities coordinating the mammoth event had been reduced to the use of two-way ultra high frequency and very high frequency hand-held radios.
Some eight million devotees have been expected to take part in the annual "Translaccion", an event where the image of the Black Nazarene is paraded through the main Manila thoroughfare from Quiapo district to the Quirino Grandstand in the capital's central Luneta Park.
President Benigno Aquino, during a press briefing on Sunday evening, said the authorities had uncovered plans by terrorists to disrupt the event.
Enforcement agencies
According to the presidential palace, the government had requested the country's telecom service providers to fully cooperate with law-enforcement agencies and take precautionary measures to enhance public safety during the observance of the feast.
"All of them responded. The disruption in mobile services will be along the routes to be taken by the procession and it will last for the entire duration," Deputy Presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.
The Translaccion commemorates the journey 400 years ago of the fire-blackened image from Acapulco, Mexico to the Philippines.
During the event, a stampede left 324 devotees injured.
"On the interruption of the mobile services, of course, we feel that it is warranted as an additional security measure and is necessary for us to ensure that nothing untoward will happen during the period of the procession, and the celebration," Valte said.
"Second, there are still land lines that are available for them to be able to report. It's not the entire area, we wish to stress. There are areas that are not part of the interruption, or the disruption, in the mobile service," she said.
The disruption in mobile communication in the vicinity of the procession's route was aimed at preventing the use of a cellular phone to trigger a bomb blast.
Valte, likewise, emphasised that the President's warning to the public about the intelligence reports had nothing to do with a United States travel advisory.
"First, on the US travel advisory, as mentioned by the President [on Sunday] there is no connection to the release… of the advisory and the corresponding warnings that were made. While we routinely receive intelligence reports of this nature, as also mentioned by the National Security Adviser, there is a process by which we arrive at the assessment. And it was, because of recent developments, that it was conveyed to the president yesterday," she said.
