February 8, 2010 - Alarmed by the threats coming from unidentified elements who threatened to bomb Zamboanga City, and the spate of kidnapping in the restive province of Basilan which is very near to Zamboanga City, Mayor Celso L Lobregat has ordered the city police force and the military to step up security measure around this City.

Last month, more than 1,000 workers were evacuated from the city hall after receiving threats that powerful bomb had been planted in the office of Mayor Lobregat and would explode anytime. However, policemen and soldiers who searched the area found no explosives; it turned out it was a hoax.

Col. Santiago Baluyot, Commander of Anti-terror task force in Zamboanga City said, they are tightening the security of Zamboanga peininsula including Zamboanga city to ensure that peace and order situation in the area is under control.

Lobregat is a close ally of Vice Gov. Emmanuel Pinol of North Cotabato. Both are spoilers in the peace process which filed petition against the signing of the MOA-AD that led to the disastrous halt of the peace negotiations between the government and the MILF in 2008. The botched agreement resulted in the escalation of war in Mindanao that sent more than half million people to evacuation centers in Central Mindanao.

Descendant of a Spanish soldier married or linked to a Subanon lady, he acted like a true-blooded Spanish when he was only a creole. He declared Zamboanga City as a Latin City, owing to the Chavacano dialect which is heavily embedded with Spanish language, Visayan, and Subanon dialects.

Zamboanga City has 22 Moro-dominated barangays out of some 80 or so other barangays. But the Moro population have no strong political and economic power that would enable them to be heard.