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Palace downplays info on Marwan’s plot vs. Pope Francis
By ANDREO CALONZO, GMA News
Malacañang on Monday downplayed the intelligence information that suspected terrorist Zulkifli bin Hir alias Marwan planned to bomb Pope Francis' convoy in Manila on Jan. 25.
Asked if President Benigno Aquino III was aware of this supposed threat to the Pope, presidential spokesman Secretary Edwin Lacierda quoted National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia as saying that such a threat was considered “minimal.”
Asked if President Benigno Aquino III was aware of this supposed threat to the Pope, presidential spokesman Secretary Edwin Lacierda quoted National Security Adviser Cesar Garcia as saying that such a threat was considered “minimal.”
“No specific report to this effect was received, and this threat was thereafter assessed to be minimal,” Garcia said in a message forwarded to the media by Lacierda.
Last month, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas said security officials looked into reports that a Malaysian national planned to bomb the Pope’s convoy, but added these reports were not substantiated.
Marwan was killed in a police operation on Jan. 25. The mission, however, also resulted in the deaths of 44 commandos after a clash with members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front and its breakaway group Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.
The operation in Mamasapano, Maguindanao is now the subject of a Senate inquiry.
In his speech during the Senate hearing on the January 25 Mamasapano clash, relieved Special Action Force (SAF) director Getulio Napeñas said the police received “unconfirmed” information that the Jemaah Islamiyah, in coordination with Marwan, was planning to device a bomb that will be detonated as the papal convoy drove from T.M Kalaw Street in Manila on Jan 18, 2015.
“These reports were not confirmed and neither admitted nor denied by the Philippine National Police, but the fact, however, remains that there exists this information,” he said.
Reached for comments, military spokesman Col. Restituto Padilla Jr. said they also received information on Marwan's supposed plan to bomb the papal convoy during his visit in the Philippines last month.
"We got wind of this piece of info but this was unverified and unconfirmed information," Padilla said in a text message to GMA News Online. —NB, GMA News
Tags: mamasapanoclash
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