MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police on Thursday said it has not received information on the supposed terror plot in Metro Manila, a police spokesman told INQUIRER.net.
“We have not received any reports on the terror threat and only learned (about it) from the media,” PNP spokesperson Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz Jr. said, adding that security forces were taking it seriously “with or without an intelligence report.”
An exclusive report by the Associate Press quoted a source as saying that Zulkifli bin Hir, a long-wanted terrorist suspect believed to be hiding in the southern Mindanao region, and the Abu Sayyaf deployed militants to bomb targets in Manila. Those targets were not specified in the report.
Cruz said that intelligence units of the PNP have “intensified their efforts to confirm the veracity (of the report).”
“Security precautions are in place,” Cruz assured, adding that “in the Mindanao area, we have been on full alert for a long time.”
He said that the PNP has also kept a close watch on the movements of terror groups.