Police in full alert in Mindanao, heightened alert in Luzon, Visayas
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 07/07/2009 3:59 PM
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The Philippine National Police (PNP) on Tuesday placed all its units in Mindanao on full alert after the series of bombings that killed at least 13 people since Sunday.
PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa said he has also ordered all units in Luzon and Visayas to go on heightened alert status.
Verzosa said the alert levels were raised in the three major regions in the country to "prevent the situation from getting out of hand."
Chief Superintendent Roberto Rosales, Metro Manila police director, said he ordered all units in the metropolis to go on a high alert status and deploy more policemen in malls, churches and train stations.
Rosales, however, said people in Metro Manila should not panic and assured that the police and the military are doing everything to protect them.
The PNP chief said investigators were still determining if the three blasts in Cotabato City, Iligan City and Jolo in Sulu province "were coordinated."
A powerful blast took place outside the Immaculate Conception cathedral in Cotabato City while churchgoers were attending Mass around 8:40 a.m. Five people died on the spot and another person died during treatment on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, another bomb exploded meters away from a church in downtown Jolo while military and police bomb disposal units were detonating another bomb. Six more people died and more than 40 others were hurt in the blast.
It was followed by another explosion in Iligan City around 10:30 a.m. Probers said the bomb that exploded was rigged into a car parked at the corner of Sabayle Street and Cabili Avenue, a few meters away from the city port. The blast killed one and wounded 10 people.
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