PNoy cautious in identifying groups behind Makati bus bombing

President Benigno Aquino III on Wednesday remained careful in pinpointing any group or individual behind the bombing on Tuesday of a passenger bus in Makati City that killed five people and injured 13 others. At a briefing after attending the 400th anniversary of the University of Santo Tomas, Aquino said members of intelligence cluster of his Cabinet are reassessing the reports they have gathered so far. “At this time, we will not point to any particular group…. We’re not even sure that the label ‘terrorists’ on perpetrators is most appropriate. So after we have the data and solid evidence, I think we and nobody can make any pronouncements," he told reporters. “We are trying to correlate all of this data again, revisit all of them to find out if there were any indications of groups that were planning this," he added. He admitted that the closest intelligence report regarding terror attacks the intelligence cluster received was in the fourth quarter of 2010. According to him, the negative travel advisories on the Philippines issued by several countries last year were based on raw reports that terror groups are planning to attack a shopping mall. “Supposedly, there were certain terrorist elements planning to undertake such activities. But the assessment was that they didn’t have the necessary resources, including a support base that will help them carry out their plans. So that is being reassessed now," the President said. He reiterated his appeal to allow security agencies to “complete their work to get concrete leads on how to proceed in addressing the problem in the best possible way." He further said the Philippine National Police is coming up with guidelines on how to secure areas possibly exposed to increased threat level. Aquino also said “there is no such thing as 100-percent security" because some emerging terror groups will most likely “escape the radar of the entire intelligence community of the world." “Sinabi ng intelligence community na meron talagang weakness ang any country – kung me dumating na unknown, na below the radar and doesn’t appear on any watch list of any intelligence agency in the world, that is a particular vulnerability of any country," the President said. — LBG/KBK, GMANews.TV