TERROR PLOT LEAK. Col. Aden Lagradante, General Santos City police director, appeals to the public to remain calm after the circulation of an alert memo regarding a terror plot reportedly targeting the city. He admitted on Friday (Sept. 27, 2019) that the memo was issued by their office but said it was supposed to be an internal document and not intended to be made public. (File photo courtesy of the city police office)
GENERAL SANTOS CITY -- Authorities appealed to residents here to remain calm after a police memo indicating a terror plot reportedly targeting the city was leaked.
Col. Aden Lagradante, city police director, admitted on Friday that the security memorandum was issued by their office but said it was supposed to be an internal document and was not intended to be made public.
Lagradante confirmed the contents of the document, which detailed alleged plans by a local terrorist group to launch bomb attacks in key areas in the city.
“This should not have leaked as we don’t want people to panic. Rest assured that we are doing everything to properly secure the city,” he said.
The alert memo, dated September 24, started circulating on social media on Wednesday.
It contained Lagradante’s instruction to the city’s eight police stations to intensify security measures due to a monitored terrorist threat.
It cited information from a “reliable source” that the group of fugitive bombing suspect Joeffrey Nilong alias Momoy, who has been tagged as a remnant of the Ansar Al-Khilafa Philippines terror group and sub-leader of the Dawlah Islamiyah-Maguif faction, was “planning to conduct terror activities” in the city.
The memo cited as primary targets the KCC Mall, Gaisano Mall, and the city central public market, using improvised explosives fashioned from 60mm and 81mm mortars.
Lagradante said the areas cited in the memo are considered as “soft targets” and they already laid out various security measures to avert these attacks.
“We should avoid going to crowded places as these are likely targets,” he said.
As to the release of the confidential memo to the public, the police official said they have adopted a system to prevent another leak in the future.
“The process is that we only release the internal alert memo to our lower units for proper action. Then the public will only feel the impact of these actions later on,” he said.
The city remains under Alert Level 3 due to the continuing security threats and the prevailing martial law in Mindanao.
Nilong, who is the subject of a continuing manhunt, was among those charged over the bomb blast in front of a lying-in clinic on Sept. 16, 2018 that left eight people wounded. (PNA)
