MANILA, Philippines – Amid terrorist threats worldwide, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) urged Filipinos to be more observant of their surroundings and preempt any possible attempts by lawless groups to create havoc in their communities.
AFP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla on Thursday said that while authorities had not monitored any threats against any major city in the country so far, “the threat never stops.”
“There will always be threat coming from anywhere, any time of the day, any time of the week, and hence, the issue here is readiness,” he said.
“More than anything else, whether there is a crisis or not, we need to be vigilant. We need to be alert. We need to be very observant of our surroundings,” added Padilla.
Padilla said every member of the community must be watchful because it is not only the Philippines and the AFP who are facing threats from terrorism but the whole world as well.
“This concept of shared responsibility and security is a relevant item that we need to reiterate because every citizen must realize that our country has a limited number of soldiers. It has a limited number of police and other security personnel,” he said.
The AFP has been monitoring about 300 websites that are possibly being used by terrorists as propaganda tools, according to Padilla.
He said the AFP had already coordinated with the Philippine National Police’s Cybercrime Group for the closure of 64 of these websites, which are mostly hosted in the Philippines.
