ZAMBOANGA CITY — About 3,000 people marched to the streets in this southern port city yesterday to protest the transfer of the military’s Southern Command headquarters elsewhere.
Protesters, backed by local politicians, expressed fears that the removal of the military base would make Zamboanga City vulnerable to terror attacks, aside from the impact it would have on the economy.
“This would open the door to terror attacks, we will be vulnerable now to attacks by the Abu Sayyaf and other groups, such as the Jemaah Islamiyah,” a protester named Juan Santos said.
“This is wrong, very wrong. I see this as a revenge by those who lost in the last national elections,” said the 33-year old father of four, insinuating that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo was trying to get even because she lost badly in the city during the May 2004 polls.
Local officials carried former movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., who died in December, months after losing in an election he has considered rigged.
Arroyo has ordered the military to move the Southcom, as the sprawling camp is called, to the farming town of Pulacan in Zamboanga del Sur, about 250 km east of the city, in March.
Arroyo earlier ordered the transfer of the regional seat Pagadian City in Zamboanga del Sur despite a strong objections by local politicians, led by opposition Rep. Erico Fabian and Mayor Celso Lobregat.
The protests were timed with the visit of a group of lawmakers led by Rep. Roilo Golez to conduct an inquiry into the transfer of the unified military base, built more than three decades ago at the height of Moro rebellion.
Serving as the command and control center of the military in the southern Philippines, the Southcom is one of the biggest military installations in the country.
The current chief, Lt. Gen. Alberto Braganza, said the transfer of the base would not affect the local security because the navy and the air force headquarters will remain. He said only about 500 soldiers that make up the command center would be transferred.
“There is nothing to worry. We have more than enough forces to secure Zamboanga from terror threats. We are only moving out our command center, not the navy, not the air force headquarters and not even the local military task force that is helping the police maintain peace and order here,” Braganza told lawmakers on a hearing held at the tightly guarded Western Mindanao University.
Zamboanga City had been bombed many times in the past by the Abu Sayyaf, a small, but the most violent rebel group tied to Al-Qaeda terror network.
Security was tight in Zamboanga City yesterday and a pair of air force OV-10 bombers were seen taking off from the Edwin Andrews Air Base.
Military and police bomb squad members were spotted inspecting parked vehicles near where the protesters had assembled. Hundreds of soldiers and policemen were also deployed to secure the university where the congressional hearing was held.
Many department store owners closed their stores for about four hours and banks only opened until noontime in support to the protesters. But many traders who do business in the markets also complained that they were forced by government workers to close early and told to join the demonstration.
Most of the protesters came in buses and trucks from the different villages, others said they volunteered to join the rallyists, while some claimed they had been paid to attend the congressional inquiry. “This is a political show of force, what else do you expect?” one protester said.
