Senator Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. on Tuesday called on authorities to tighten the security of transport hubs, malls and other areas where large number of people converge as the country observes the 15th anniversary of the Rizal Day bombing.
The 2000 bombings perpetrated by Muslim extremists linked to the terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah claimed 22 lives and injured over a hundred other people.
Marcos noted that a few days ago the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters and the Abu Sayyaf launched separate attacks against the military forces in Mindanao.
“While these attacks seem to be largely directed against the military forces we must not be complacent. We must not allow the bombings that occurred 15 years ago to happen again,” Marcos said.
On Dec. 30, 2000 five separate explosions rocked Metro Manila: Plaza Ferguson in Malate, Manila; a gas station in Makati, a bus in Cubao, a cargo handling station at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, and in the LRT coach at the Blumentritt station which caused the most number of casualties.
The senator also cited reports that the BIFF claimed their recent attacks were inspired by ISIS, who were behind the November terror attacks in Paris that left 129 dead and 350 people injured.
He pointed out that Malaysian and Indonesian terrorists have linked with Muslim extremists and that a Malaysian bomb expert was killed in an encounter between the Abu Sayyaf and the military in Basilan last Dec. 15.
“We must not allow extremism in any ground to grow,” said Marcos, Chairman of the Senate committee on local government and sponsor of the Basic Law for Bangsamoro Autonomous Region that intends to embody the peace pact between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
With the BLBAR passage uncertain in the few remaining session days of Congress, Marcos said efforts to find peace in Muslim Mindanao should not and never be abandoned.
For her part, Senator Loren Legarda urged Filipinos to follow the example of Rizal and emulate his philosophy and commitment to environmental care and management.
“Dr. Jose Rizal is known to us as a man of incredible intellectual power who fought for our freedom through his pen, books and knowledge. But unknown to many, Rizal had keen devotion to environmental planning,” Legarda said.
She said that during Rizal’s exile in Dapitan, he helped plan the now sprawling city in Zamboanga by building fish pens, constructing an aqueduct that provided people with clean water, using coconut oil lamps to light up streets and planting numerous trees, turning the town into a green space, among others.
Legarda, Chair of the Senate committee on climate change and a staunch environmentalist, said these are just some of the many but often unproclaimed contributions of Rizal to the environment that are worth emulating.