Manila orders strict checks at airports

Philippine immigration authorities have been ordered to tightly screen foreigners at the airports after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) alerted Manila over the possibility of extremist groups entering the country.

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said she has instructed immigration intelligence agents to closely monitor arriving passengers at the country's international ports of entry, especially those carrying Colombian travel documents and posing as members of international media organisations.

According to the immigration chief, the FBI raised the alarm after it extracted information from members of Al Qaida who are detained at the U.S. Marine base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Domingo said based on the FBI report, Al Qaida operatives have been instructed to provide intelligence for possible terrorist targets that includes photographs of mostly U.S. facilities in the Philippines and other countries.

Domingo said she has also ordered immigration officers to subject suspected extremists to secondary inspection.

She explained that special concern will be given to unidentified foreign nationals observed to have taken photographs near vital military bases, government buildings, power generating stations and water treatment facilities.

The Philippines, a staunch ally of the United States in the campaign against extremist groups, had in the past detained several foreigners on suspicion that they are "terrorists".

Most of the suspicions turned out to be baseless and authorities eventually either deported the suspects or were forced to let them free.