ASEAN summit ‘secure,’ military reiterates

By Joel Guinto
INQUIRER.net
Last updated 06:37pm (Mla time) 01/05/2007

MANILA -- THE 12th Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) summit in the central province of Cebu next week is safe from terrorists, a military official said Friday.

Lieutenant General Eugenio Cedo, chief of the Western Mindanao Command (Westmincom), said al Qaeda-linked groups like the Abu Sayyaf and the Jemaah Islamiyah were trapped in the southern island province of Sulu, lugging a cache of explosives that were seized in late 2006 while trying to outrun a five-month old military dragnet.

Cedo said the Abu Sayyaf and the JI also could not stage attacks in central Mindanao and Metro Manila.

"The ASEAN summit is secure," Cedo told reporters in Camp Aguinaldo.

"They [extremists] cannot slip out [of Sulu] because they are not accepted in other areas," he said.

The government postponed the ASEAN meeting, originally scheduled in December, citing typhoon "Seniang" (international codename: Utor). But reports said at that time that the summit was under threat from terrorist groups.

Some 7,000 policemen and 5,000 soldiers have been tasked to guard the week-long regional leaders' meeting.

Cedo also said that aside from Dulmatin and Umar Patek, the alleged brains of the 2002 Bali Bombings, the Abu Sayyaf is coddling at least seven other JI members in Sulu.

He said the JI members, together with the Abu Sayyaf, escaped a military dragnet in Central Mindanao in 2005.

On December 27, the military dug up what was believed to be the remains of Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani in Patikul town, Sulu, site of a fierce September 4 encounter between government forces and the extremists.

Tissue samples from the body would be sent to the United States for DNA [deoxyribonucleic acid) testing to confirm if it belonged to Janjalani.

Should the DNA tests fail, Cedo said authorities could match the dental records of the corpse with those of Janjalani's.

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