Security alert in south raised after threats

The military is not taking lightly the reported threats against American soldiers who will be conducting training exercises on the strife-torn islands in the south, armed forces chief Gen. Dionisio Santiago said yesterday.

In a telephone interview, Santiago said appropriate security measures are being taken in preparation for the conduct of the joint exercises codenamed Balikatan 03-1 in Sulu in the coming months.

"We will not take it lightly. We'll implement the appropriate security preparations, we'll intensify our intelligence monitoring and be more vigilant," he stated. He added that the support of the public in providing information will be vital in their intelligence operations.

Santiago said there are adequate security forces in Sulu where the Abu Sayyaf and its armed allies are holding seven hostages - three Indonesian crewmen and four female members of the Jehova's Witnesses religious group.

Since the presidential palace announced the military exercises in Sulu, a number of warnings have been issued by various groups, including the extremist Abu Sayyaf, against the presence of American troops in the predominantly-Muslim region.

"It's like committing suicide, given the historical background of Sulu against the U.S. colonisation way back in the 1900s," published reports quoted Sulu Rep. Hussein Amin as saying.

Even Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Parouk Hussin shares Amin's view, stressing that the people of Sulu cannot easily forget "their horrible experience" under the American soldiers during the 1900s when U.S. troops undertook a pacification campaign to subdue local rulers who insisted on independence.

The pacification succeeded at a cost of thousands of Moro lives.

In Zamboanga City, security forces have been deployed after military intelligence reports said Abu Sayyaf rebels would attack civilian and U.S. targets. A contingent of U.S. soldiers is in Zamboanga City in preparation for a military exercise in Sulu next month.

Yesterday, a platoon of Filipino Marines was deployed at dawn to guard a Catholic shrine bombed by rebels in November that left one soldier dead and six people wounded.

Heavily-armed troops also set up road checkpoints and were inspecting vehicles for weapons or bombs in downtown Zamboanga City.

A military report said the rebels would bomb churches and malls and could also be targeting U.S. soldiers training Filipino troops at an army base in Malagutay village, 10km west of the provincial capital Zamboanga del Sur.

"We are ready to face any threats by the Abu Sayyaf," said regional military spokesman Lt. Col. Daniel Lucero.

A security official said the Abu Sayyaf is likely to launch attacks in Zamboanga City in retaliation for the killing on February 18 of rebel leader Mujib Susukan in a gunfight with troops in Sulu.

Southern command chief Lt. Gen. Narciso Abaya said Susukan's death "is a big blow to the Abu Sayyaf, whose group now is in disarray". Susukan was third in the hierarchy of the Abu Sayyaf leadership.

Around dawn yesterday in Manila, a phone call warning of a bomb inside two passenger aircraft at the city's domestic airport caused a major disruption in flights.