Philippines on high alert as Pope Francis visits

Manila: Philippine authorities are on high alert to thwart possible terror attacks during the visit by Pope Francis, sources said on Tuesday.

The leader of the Roman Catholic church will be in the country from Thursday until Sunday.

“We are maximising all of these efforts and we’re touching base with so many allies to try and see, to identify, any threat whatsoever coming from any direction,” President Benigno Aquino said, adding the army, police, and Presidential Security Group had been coordinating with the Interpol and the Vatican Police to secure the papal and state visit by Pope Francis.

International security institutions in Asean countries have been coordinating with each other on “some of their citizens suspected of wanting to join IS [Daesh],” Aquino said.

Rommel Banloi, executive director of the Philippine Institute for Peace, Violence, and Terrorism Research, said extremist groups could be a major threat.

However, army spokesman Restituto Padilla said: “So far, we have no terror threat coming out of our radar screen.”

He said the government had put in place pre-emptive security measures.

“The New People’s Army (NPA), the armed wing of the 46-year old Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has declared ceasefire from December 19 to January 19,” Padilla said.

“The military has an ongoing law enforcement operation in Jolo [southern Philippines] to curtail the terror activities of the Al Qaida-linked Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG),” Padilla said.

The 20-year-old ASG has links with Jemaah Islamiyah, the southeast Asian conduit of Al Qaida.

It has been blamed for kidnap-for-ransom, beheadings, bombings, and terror activities in the south and in Metro Manila.

The Bangsamoro Islamic Freedon Fighters (BIFF), the armed wing of the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Movement (BIFM) in the south, a group that broke away from the 36-year-old mainstream Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in 2008, is “now focused on other things, Padilla said.

He said the BIFF is campaigning against the passage of a law that will implement the provisions of the political settlement forged by the Philippine government and the MILF in 2014.

With the help of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, the Philippine government and the MILF started holding epace talks in 1997.

On Tuesday, members of Gendermeria (the Vatican police) began inspecting an open grandstand in Manila’s Luneta Park where the pope will lead a mass on January 18 (Sunday); the Manila Cathedral in Manila’s Intramuros where he will hold a mass for religious leaders on January 16; the Mall of Asia where he will hold a meeting with poor families on January 16.

The Vatican police also inspected all the places the pope will visit in central Philippines’ Tacloban and Palo, Leyte on January 17,

On Monday, dry runs were held by 21,000 school and church-based civilian volunteers, 20,000 policemen, 17,000 government soldiers, members of the Philippine Coast Guard, police explosives division, and a large contingent of the Vatican police — to prepare for crowd control during the pope’s visit in Metro Manila and central Philippines.

X-ray scanners and closed circuit television (CCTV) were installed at the Apostolic Nunciature on Taft Avenue in Manila, the pope’s residence; on the roads where his motorcade will pass; and at places where he will lead a series of masses both in Manila and in central Philippines.

Several flights have been cancelled and a no-fly zone was declared on January 15, for the pontiff’s arrival, around 5pm. Camera drones have been banned and devotees were advised not to bring backpacks and umbrellas to watch the pope’s motorcade and mass.

Sources claimed the PNP’s Regional Investigation Management Division allegedly issued on January 5 a memorandum ordering police offices nationwide to monitor militant cells.

Militants killed 17 people in three days during attacks that initially targeted Charlie Hebdo, a satirical newspaper, and a kosher supermarket in France last week.

Earlier, Iraq’s ambassador to the Vatican Habeeb Al Sadr was quoted as telling La Nazione, an Italian paper, about DAESH’ plan against the pope during his trips abroad. This was before the pope went to Albania and Turkey last September 2014.

Last August, members of the ASG and BIFF were seen pledging allegiance to Daesh in separate video clips that were uploaded on YouTube.

More than a hundred of young Filipino-Muslims shave joined the Daesh, former President Fidel Ramos and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte claimed last year.