MANILA, Philippines—As Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin confirmed Tuesday morning in an interview with 990 AM Radyo Inquirer that the military will remain on alert status in Metro Manila even after the generally peaceful Feast of the Black Nazarene, a national police spokesperson said the police securing Metro Manila including its nearby provinces will also stay on full alert until they have neutralized the terror threat bared on Sunday by no less than President Benigno Aquino III.
Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr., spokesman of the Philippine National Police, said the National Capital Region Police Office and its counterparts in provinces flanking the metro will continue operating on full alert, a status which was raised the day before the Feast of the Black Nazarene, until the chief PNP orders them to lower the alert level.
Security measures have been tightened at vital installations, economic key points, and areas of convergence since Sunday, a matter which the PNP leadership appealed to the public to have patience with. He said that such security precautions would continue while the authorities worked to stamp out possible threats to the public.
Among the areas police will focus on would be bus stations, airports and sea ports, and train systems.
He asked the public to exercise patience in subjecting themselves to security inspections as these measures were “para sa kapakanan ng nakararami (for the benefit of everybody)” and were being conducted “with the public’s safety and security in mind.”
He said PNP chief Director General Nicanor Bartolome regularly coordinated with intelligence agencies assessing the alleged terror threat on a daily basis, and monitoring and operations to neutralize possible threats to the safety of the public were ongoing as well.
Cruz added that they were hopeful that their operations would bear fruit soon “and once and for all capture and neutralize” the group authorities failed to capture during weekend raids on three houses in Manila and Rizal province.
Authorities believed the group had planned to bomb the Black Nazarene feast on Monday, prompting the government to jam cell-phone signals amid the procession. Cruz said the order had gone through channels and invoked by officials.
“We were just one of the agencies who recommended it,” he replied to questions of who was responsible for the action.
He called the measure a “calibrated response to imminent threats” and defended the government’s move to limit the network signal in certain parts of Manila as intelligence reports pointed to a group trained in making bombs. The said group had an affinity for using cell phones as triggering devices for their bombs, he said.
“We hope the public understands why we had to disrupt the signal. It was done to protect the nine million devotees who went to the feast and was for the good of the public.”
In the event of possible threats, he said they would not hesitate to jam cell-phone signals again if that was what it took to ensure the security of the public.
“Ayaw po namin na may masaktan o mamatay na kababayan (We don’t want anyone hurt or dead).”
He said the PNP chief meanwhile congratulated security agencies who pitched in operations to ensure security to the Feast of the Black Nazarene, saying that the much sought-after religious event had been “generally peaceful” despite being the longest procession.
None among policemen or officers from other security agencies were injured but did have to wait it out with limited food and water just to secure the procession. Even the 40 K9 dogs were not spared having to sacrifice in order to provide security precautions, what with the mammoth crowd and the difficulty officers experienced trying to weave in and out the devotees with the bomb-sniffing dogs, he said.
The mulatto Christ was finally brought back into Quiapo Church by 6:10 a.m. on Tuesday, 22 hours after its ‘Traslacion’ kicked off from the Quirino Grandstand Monday morning. With a report from 990 AM Radyo Inquirer