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Raissa Robles

Security tightened at key areas as Arroyo vows to wipe out Abu Sayyaf suspects

Fear gripped the nation's capital yesterday as residents braced for possible fresh attacks, a day after six people were killed when a bomb tore apart a packed bus at the gateway of Makati financial district.

Marines were deployed  at sensitive installations in Manila such as the Pandacan oil depot,  a stone's throw away from the presidential palace.

Two other improvised bombs  also exploded on Monday in the southern  cities of General Santos and Davao City, killing six others, prompting the nation's security forces to go on highest alert.

It also caused President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo  and United States envoy Francis Ricciardone to cancel  talks  with a business group  in Davao City yesterday.

Armed forces chief General Efren Abu said: 'Our troops will help national police to secure crowded places where people assemble to prevent further attacks.'

Security was tightened around foreign embassies in Makati, the domestic and international airports, mass transit stations, bus terminals and shopping malls.

Plain-clothes police were  deployed on buses and trains.

Presidential spokesman Ignacio Bunye said: 'We ask the people to brace themselves against these attacks on our freedom and security.'

Philippine National Police Chief Edgardo Aglipay appealed to  residents 'to go on with your daily activities'.

He announced a 500,000 peso ($71,000) reward for any information leading to the arrest of the 'two Valentine's Day bombers'.

A witness claimed seeing two men  acting suspiciously at the rear of a passenger bus  travelling on the capital's main highway, EDSA.

Yesterday morning,  the route was crowded  with the usual traffic rush. But bus drivers and conductors complained that passengers refused to occupy the rear seats.

On the financial markets, the peso weakened slightly against the dollar but the main stock index inched up slightly.

Listeners swamped radio stations with calls and mobile phone text messages condemning the bombings, in which they expressed  reluctance to go to the malls, a popular Filipino pastime.

The callers also expressed an overwhelmingly anti-Muslim sentiment. One caller named Mario said, 'Muslims ought to be wiped out,' prompting the radio anchor to cut him off the air.

Muslim residents in the town of Taguig, Metropolitan Manila,  visited their congressman, Alan Cayetano, to ask him to protect them from indiscriminate police arrests following the bombings.

To calm the nation,  Mrs Arroyo issued a statement vowing 'to wipe out the remnants of the Abu Sayyaf', a  terrorist group which immediately claimed responsibility.

However, she was careful to state that 'this is not a fight against Islam', or against the separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front, which was still negotiating a peace pact with the government. Nor was it a fight against the Moro National Liberation Front, which had signed a peace agreement in 1996, she noted.

Although Mrs Arroyo squarely blamed the Abu Sayyaf for the latest bombings, her security and military officials said they remained unsure.

National Security Adviser Norberto Gonzales said they were still looking at other angles because 'it's too early to tell'.

Mr Aglipay said that hours before the blasts,  police seized four blocks of TNT,  explosives and  blasting caps in Paranaque City, just outside Manila.

'We thought we had caught all of them, but somebody managed to slip past us,' he said



Manila on high alert after bombings