ZAMBOANGA CITY, 16 January 2005 — Thousands of people yesterday marched in Zamboanga City in the southern Philippines to appeal to President Gloria Arroyo to recall orders for the transfer of over a hundred regional government offices and agencies to Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur.

President Arroyo ordered the transfer this year of the offices to Pagadian City, about 200 km east of here, because of its strategic location to other provinces in the south.

Only the Department of Trade and Industry, the Department of Labor and Employment and the Department of Tourism will remain in Zamboanga City.

Local officials said the transfer would affect some 8,000 civil workers and their families.

The marchers, estimated at more than 5,000, held a prayer rally at the open air Catholic shrine called Fort Pilar, despite earlier warnings by the military that it has uncovered a terror plot by militant group Abu Sayyaf to bomb civilian and government targets in Zamboanga City.

Southern Command spokesman Col. Domingo Tutaan said security forces were on heightened alert since Thursday.

He described the intelligence reports as credible and appealed to the public to stay vigilant and report to authorities any suspicious acitivity. “We don’t want to scare the public, but there is a credible report and we need to stay vigilant and alert,” Tutaan said.

The reports said terrorists would bomb civilian and government targets to retaliate for the killing and capture of Abu Sayyaf members the past months in the southern Philippines. “We have coordinated with the police and other law enforcement agencies to hunt down these terrorists and prevent the attacks,” Tutaan said.

Tutaan did not elaborate on the details of the terror plot, but said there is an ongoing operation to arrest Abu Sayyaf members who are believed hiding in Zamboanga City.

Zamboanga City Rep. Erico Fabian said those who joined the prayer made an appeal to President Arroyo to not to push through with the transfer of the regional government offices.

“This rally is a show of unity in support to our brothers and sisters in the civil service who are opposing the transfer of government offices to Pagadian City,” he said.

Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat said the transfer would cost the government billions of pesos as Pagadian City lacks the infrastructure, communication and business facilities to host the agencies.

“We pray that President Arroyo would change her mind and not push through with the transfer of the regional government offices because it would greatly affect the employees and their families, and the children and everybody,” Lobregat said.

The transfer of the regional offices was originally made by then President Corazon Aquino in 1990 under Executive Order 429 mandating all, except the regional offices of the tourism, labor and trade departments, to be transferred to Pagadian City.

Arroyo said the regional office of the Department of Tourism would also be transferred to the resort city of Dapitan in Zamboanga del Norte province as thousands of local and foreign tourists visit every year the posh Dakak beach resort and the shrine of the country’s national hero, Dr. Jose Rizal.

Arroyo last year signed the Memorandum Circular 75 ordering the implementation of the Aquino’s EO 429.

Zamboanga City is a known opposition stronghold where Arroyo lost to movie actor Fernando Poe by a landslide in the May 2004 Presidential elections.