Manila, Nov 29: The Philippines today created a
special police squad to protect Embassies but hit out at
Australia and Canada for closing their missions here without
warning for alleged terror threats.
Philippine Foreign Secretary Blas Ople said information
about the threat from the Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) Islamic
militancy had not been shared with local police before the
missions were shut down yesterday. They remained shuttered
today.
Speaking after a meeting with the Australian and
Canadian Ambassadors, Ople told reporters late yesterday the
terror alert "came from their home governments and presumably
their own intelligence."
Ople told the ambassadors the shutdown gave "a black eye
to the Philippines," particularly as the country had taken an
active role in hunting down Islamic extremists in the region.
"The ambassadors expressed regret over this development,"
he said. "They said the threat came from Islamic
fundamentalists, specifically Jemaah Islamiyah."
President Gloria Arroyo's spokesman Rigoberto Tiglao
said Embassy officials refused to disclose the source of their
information even as he stressed the Philippines also had the
right to know if a terrorist attack was imminent on its
"sovereign soil."
Bureau Report
