Public told: Stay alert amid warnings on ‘June 30 attacks’

Chief Supt. Noli Taliño (center), director of the Police Regional Office (PRO7) in Central Visayas. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

MANILA — Stay alert.

While still validating reports regarding the June 30 terror attacks in key areas in the country, Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), called on the people to be on guard and not to take any threat lightly.

“All those reports (simultaneous terror attacks on June 30) are subject for validation,” he said in a text message to Cebu Daily News on Tuesday evening.

Taliño ordered all police stations in the region to secure their facilities so as to avoid any takeover, and to intensify their intelligence gathering.

He also advised the public to immediately report any suspicious-looking persons and unusual activities to the police.

Since early Tuesday, social media sites have been flooded with reports supposedly coming from the police, military and aviation security forces which claimed that a joint team from the ISIS, Maute terror group, and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters (BIFF) will launch major attacks in key cities in the country on June 30.

The reports were supposed to be “confidential” but circulated in social networking sites mainly through private messages.

It said petroleum trucks would be hijacked and used as “vehicle bombs.”

The terror attacks are reportedly aimed at churches, shopping malls, and other areas of convergence.

Foreign terrorists, according to the report, will carry out the suicide attacks which will not spare the mosques.

“Maute special units who graduated last November from explosives training had already been in place at their respective targets nationwide to simultaneously execute the attacks during the Friday prayer ‘Jumaah,'” one such report read.

So far, however, Cebu and the rest of Central Visayas are safe from terrorists, according to Taliño.

The police have coordinated with the Cebu Ports Authority (CPA) to help stop the possible entry of terrorists.

Policemen are also assigned to secure the Pasil Fish Port, which is not under the CPA.

Talino said the Muslim community in Cebu has also been very cooperative with the police to ensure no terrorist could enter the island.  SFM