TITA C. VALDERAMA
from Peoples Journal

A party-list congressman warned police authorities yesterday against employing scare tactics in pressing the enactment of the anti-terrorism bill that would grant them awesome powers.
              
Rep. Mujiv Hataman of Anak Mindanao particularly criticized Director Vidal Querol of the National Capital Region Police Office for issuing a warning that terrorists from the Jemaah Islamiyah and al-Queda have penetrated Metro Manila and had planned missile attacks on commercial planes.
             
Hataman said Querol’s warning could had been made to justify planned police crackdowns in Muslim communities and on other innocent targets. He said the warnings serve to scare the business community and the public more than making the civilians alert on possible attacks.

Deputy Minority Leader Roilo Golez aired a similar concern the other day. “It’s unbelievable why they are scaring business and the populace with all this talk about terrorists like JI and al-Qaeda penetrating Metro Manila. Is this part of their scare tactics to make people forget about their failure to stop kidnapping, assassinations, carjackings?” asked Golez, a former national security adviser of President Macapagal-Arroyo.
  
Both Golez and Hataman suggested that Querol should just shut up and avoid statements and actions which tend to create panic among civilians and, eventually hurt the economy.