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Security has been beefed up following recent bombings and intelligence information that terrorist groups in Mindanao will spread more terror. The Philippine government knows it cannot be complacent amid reports that the country is among the primary terrorist’s targets in Southeast Asia. And there are a number of reasons to take this threat seriously. One, the Philippines is among the United States’ staunchest allies in its global campaign against terror; two, Muslim rebels and bandits in Mindanao are fighting the national government, and; three, Mindanao has, for over a decade, been a training ground for foreign terrorists. And just recently, with so much maneuvering going on – news reports, rumors, debates, preparations and operations – the perpetrators of the recent bombings in Mindanao and Metro Manila are making Filipinos quite afraid. But there are too many suspects. Many groups would benefit from scaring the population or embarrassing the government, or both. And with the apparent failure of the military and police intelligence to find the real perpetrator, speculations abound. Earlier, Defense Secretary Angelo Reyes had received information from US security officials that Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, a Canadian arrested for his alleged links to al-Qaeda, told American interrogators that the terror group had planned to plot the attacks in different targets on the Philippines. A CNN report said Jabarah revealed to US interrogators that al-Qaeda had planned to attack the US and Israeli embassies in the Philippines, through its local contacts, after a plot to bomb Western targets in Singapore was discovered and foiled by authorities early this year. The report about Jabarah’s confession was followed by the discovery of another terrorist plot, which included the assassination of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri as well as "truck-bomb" attacks in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Cambodia, and the Philippines, particularly Mindanao. The report prompted the government to beef up security at embassies, airports, power plants, telecommunications facilities and vital infrastructure projects but authorities and government officials have been caught off-guard as recent bombings in southern Mindanao and Manila have killed more than a dozen civilians. The police have some suspects in their custody whom they are convinced are behind the recent terrorism activities in the country. And unsurprisingly, the suspects have been tagged as Abu Sayyaf, which prefers kidnapping for money to bomb attacks. One group under serious consideration has already been disavowed by its alleged leader, yet its name keeps surfacing in connection with these recent attacks in the Philippines and other Southeast Asian countries. Jemaah Islamiah (JI) has been declared a terrorist group by the government of Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri following the bombing that killed nearly 200 people in Bali on Oct 12. JI has been blamed for the blast. The suspicion of the group’s involvement in the recent bombings has been fueled by the confession of Indonesian terrorist Fathur Rohman al-Ghozi, who was detained in Manila following his arrest. He earlier claimed that the JI leader slipped into the country in Dec 2000 to help plan the simultaneous bombings in Metro Manila on Dec 30 of that year. At least 22 people were killed and 96 injured in the attacks at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, the Light Railway Transit stations in Manila and Caloocan City, and a passenger bus in Quezon City. Another confession made by al-Ghozi has shocked the Philippine government, as well as the US—which was sending troops to the country under the guise of war games but which were really partly aimed at wiping out the Abu Sayyaf bandits. The confessed terrorist has accused another local secessionist group, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), of having links with JI. These revelations triggered the US government’s offer earlier this year to send more American troops to the actual combat zones in Mindanao and expand the target of Abu Sayyaf bandits to include the MILF fighters as well. But President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, knowing that such a move would further inflame the anti-American groups, reminded the US leader that the US soldiers’ role in the campaign in southern Philippines should be limited to training the Philippine military against Abu Sayyaf. The MILF’s alleged links not just to the Abu Sayyaf but even to the international terror network of al-Qaeda and Jemaah Islamiah have been underscored by the Western press and the US government.