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Airport siege attempt aborted

By P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE NOV. 8. Even as an early morning siege at the control tower of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila was brought to a swift end by security forces, the Philippine President, Gloria-Macapagal Arroyo, said, "the nature, course and magnitude of this incident show that it is not an attempt to take over the Government''.

According to her, "no unauthorised movements of troops have been detected'' and "no unusual threats, directly or remotely related to the incident, have been monitored''.

Without referring to the details of the operation that resulted in the killing of two persons, Ms. Arroyo said, "As a precautionary measure, the police and military are on maximum alert''.While her statement had much to do with coup rumours or mutiny, the security services too pointed to the relative ease with which the siege was ended without disruption to the operations at the airport. The Transportation and Communications Secretary, Leandro Mendoza, said: "Based on our initial information, we concluded that this is an isolated case, that this is nothing but a police operation to arrest an armed intruder sitting in a very critical infrastructure''.

The siege, spearheaded by a former assistant secretary assigned to the Air Transportation Office, was treated by the officials as an act of criminal trespass of the terrorist kind but not an act of political terrorism. The apparent objective behind the siege was to focus public attention on "political corruption''.

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