Australia: Terror Attack in Manila May Be Imminent

MANILA, Philippines -- The United States and Australia warned of possible terrorist attacks in Manila and the southern Philippines, sparking a security alarm in the bustling capital Wednesday with additional deployments of police patrols and intelligence agents.

Although the U.S. and Australia have previously issued similar security alerts for the volatile southern Philippines, where Muslim rebels and al-Qaida militants are active, both specifically mentioned Manila as a possible target in their latest travel advisories.

Australia, citing unspecified but reliable reports, said an attack in the capital may be "imminent."

Philippine Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin said Wednesday that the military and police have not monitored any specific threat but that the government is taking no chances.

The Western countries, along with Britain, warned their citizens visiting the Philippines to stay away from shopping malls, convention centers and places frequented by foreigners. The warnings did not identify the source of the threat or release other details.

"Reliable reports indicate that terrorist attacks may be imminent in Manila," said Australia's advisory posted on a government website.

U.S. and Australian embassy officials contacted by The Associated Press did not elaborate on their governments' advisories.

British Embassy Deputy Chief of Mission Colin Crorkin said his country's assessment of the high risks of terrorist strikes in the Philippines had not changed but added that his government recently included additional possible targets such as airports, malls and places of worship.

A Philippine official said the warnings may have come from a confidential terrorist threat assessment report by Western security officials indicating that unspecified Muslim extremists may attack a popular Manila mall, a trade center and political figures, including Manila-based diplomats. The official, who monitors security threats, spoke on condition of anonymity for lack of authority to talk to the press.

Gazmin told the AP that the government sent intelligence agents to verify the threat. Authorities also plan to ask the U.S., Australian and British embassies to provide more details.

"We are taking this seriously, and we know that this is creating apprehension," Gazmin said. "We have deployed intelligence agents but they have not come back with anything specific."

He said he discussed with the military chief of staff, Lt. Gen. Ricardo David, the possible deployment of marines in shopping malls and other public areas. However, Gazmin was reluctant to immediately take that step because it has been criticized in the past by leftist lawmakers.

The Philippines, including its capital, has been hit by deadly terrorist attacks in the past.

Despite years of battle setbacks, Muslim militants, including those from the Al Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf, have continued to plot attacks, at times collaborating with Indonesian militants belonging to the Jemaah Islamiyah terrorist network, according to the military.

Abu Sayyaf militants were blamed for the bombing of an inter-island ferry in Manila Bay in 2004, setting off an inferno that killed 116 people in Southeast Asia's second-worst terrorist strike.

The militants also claimed responsibility for Feb. 14, 2005 bombings of a bus in Manila's Makati financial district and two other southern towns that killed eight people and wounded more than 100 others.

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Manila court rules anti-terror law constitutional

MANILA, Philippines –  The Supreme Court has upheld the constitutionality of a 2007 anti-terror law, which the government sought to bolster a U.S.-backed campaign against al-Qaida-linked militants but critics fear could muzzle civil liberties.

Left-wing alliance Bayan, one of the groups that sought the repeal of the Human Security Act, said Monday it would appeal last Friday's ruling. The law rarely has been used since it took effect because law enforcers fear the heavy punishment it includes for mistaken arrests and abuses.

Then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, a staunch Asian ally of the U.S. campaign against terrorism, signed the anti-terror law in 2007 to turn her Southeast Asian country — regarded as a breeding ground of Islamic radicals — into a hostile territory for militants.

Arroyo cited terrorist attacks, including the bombing of buses, telecommunications and power lines.

The United States and Australia welcomed the new law, which took effect in July 2007. U.S. and Australian security officials have expressed fears that suspected terror training camps in the southern Philippines could produce militants who could strike anywhere in the world.

But several left-wing groups, legislators and human rights advocates separately petitioned the Supreme Court to declare the law unconstitutional, arguing its definition of terrorism was too broad and could cover legitimate dissent like labor strikes, anti-U.S. demonstrations and even daring stunts by Greenpeace activists who barge into ships and power plants.

The law defines terrorism as any of at least 12 violent crimes — including murder, kidnapping, arson, piracy, coup and rebellion — that cause widespread and extraordinary panic and force the government to give in to an unlawful demand.

It allows detention of suspected terrorists without charge for three days and their rendition to other countries.

The court said in its 45-page decision that the petitioners could not prove that the law has done them any actual damage, adding no court has declared any militant group a terrorist organization three years since the law took effect.

"Allegations of abuse must be anchored on real events before courts may step in to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable," the court said.

Renato Reyes of Bayan said activists would not wait until state forces, which have been accused of human rights violations, use the law against them.

"We have a long experience of activists being killed and harassed so we went to court to fight this law at the first instance," Reyes said.

Philippine officials have said that legislators watered down the anti-terror bill with safeguards so much that police became afraid to use it. For example, the law provides that police be fined 500,000 pesos ($11,600) for each day they wrongfully detain a terror suspect.

The law is known to have been used only twice. Philippine police cited the law to charge three bombing suspects with terrorism in November 2008.

Two months ago, state prosecutors asked a court in southern Basilan province to outlaw the small but brutal Abu Sayyaf group and more than 200 of its Islamic fighters as terrorists, citing more than two decades of bombings, kidnappings and beheadings.

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