RP beef up security around U.S. facilities

RP beef up security around U.S. facilities

MANILA (AP): Police stepped up security around the U.S.
Embassy and other American facilities in the Philippines on
Thursday to prevent retaliatory terrorist attacks after
Washington ordered missile strikes on Iraq.

"All U.S. installations have been adequately secured even
before the attack but still, we will beef up security," said
national police chief Roberto Lastimoso.

President Joseph Estrada, who is on a state visit to Vietnam,
was quoted by the presidential palace as saying that the use of
force against Iraq was "very unfortunate" and expressed hope that
the crisis can be settled "immediately to save the lives of
people."

Philippine Foreign Secretary Domingo Siazon, who is traveling
with Estrada, said, "We regret the use of force in Iraq."

"We have always believed that disputes should be settled
through peaceful means and through negotiations," he said. "At
the same time we believe that all UN resolutions should be
complied with."

Lastimoso said the action by the police was taken without a
request for additional security from U.S. embassy authorities.
He said local terrorists with links to Iraq are likely to attack
U.S. facilities after President Bill Clinton ordered air strikes
on targets suspected of concealing key elements of Iraq's
biological and chemical weapons program.

Lastimoso said local terrorists have attacked U.S. targets in
the country since the height of the Gulf War in 1991. During that
time, two Iraqi agents in Manila tried to bomb the Thomas
Jefferson Cultural Center in suburban Makati City, but the bomb
they carried exploded prematurely, killing one of them.

Security around the embassy has been raised since August,
following the bombings of U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya by
suspected followers of Saudi exile Osama bin Laden.

Aside from its embassy, the United States also maintains a
large residential seaside compound in Manila and a consulate in
central Cebu City.

Additional security will also be posted at the embassies of
Britain and Israel, Lastimoso said.

He did not say if there was reason to believe the facilities
were in immediate danger.

He said the local extremist group, Abu Sayyaf, is believed to
be involved in bin Laden's network.