RESIDENTS OF the six-storey Dona Josefa Apartments in the Manila suburb of Makati smelt a strange odor coming from suite 603, which had windows overlooking the path of a papal motorcade.
It was 11pm on January 6, 1995 - nine days before Pope John Paul II was due to arrive in the Philippines' capital Manila to visit the city's Rizal Park, where the largest crowd ever for a papal event would gather.
Police called to the apartment discovered that two terrorists had overcooked bomb-making chemicals in a kitchen sink, alerting authorities to an elaborate plot by al-Qaeda to assassinate Pope John Paul and simultaneously blow up 11 planes flying across Asia.
Nineteen years later, amid heightened concerns about acts of violence following the Paris attacks and Martin Place siege, Philippines authorities have mobilised 40,000 police, troops and reservists in the country's largest security operation for the arrival in the majority-Catholic country on Thursday of Pope Francis, 78, who plans to outline his concern for inter-religious dialogue, poverty and the environment.
Church officials expect up to six million people to attend an outdoor mass in Rizal Park on Sunday, offering a pulsating example of the dynamism of the church in the Philippines but also creating a security nightmare.
In 1995, security perimeters were breached and Pope John Paul had to be taken by helicopter to the mass site because his car could not get through the crowd.
This time the Argentinian pontiff with a man-of-the-people reputation who often sets aside security plans and wades into crowds to greet devotees is likely to attract an even bigger crowd, church officials say.
''There will be soldiers rappelling up and down from helicopters to rescue the Pope in case he will be pinned down by a sea of people,'' Philippines military chief Gregorio Catapang said.
''We may airlift or use naval boats to bring the Pope to safety if necessary,'' he said.
Philippines President Benigno Aquino has appealed for devotees to co-operate with security agencies, after a raucous Catholic procession on January 9 in Manila left two men dead and 1000 injured.
''The government cannot do this alone,'' he said.
While security agencies have not revealed knowledge of any specific plot against Pope Francis, al-Qaeda's use of the Philippines as a hub for its activities has raised concerns about another attempt to target this papal visit.
The terror group's 1995 operation in Manila, code-named Bojinka, was a forerunner for the September 11 attacks in the United States six years later.
The plot was developed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, and Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who was a mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York.
Unknown then to security agencies, Bin Laden developed ties in the Philippines in 1988, when he dispatched his brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa to the country to recruit fighters for the war in Afghanistan.
Inside suite 603 of the Dona Josefa Apartments police found maps of Manila with routes plotting the papal motorcade, a rosary, Bibles, crucifixes, priest clothing, including robes and collars, and fake passports.
They also found gallons of bombing-making material, including nitroglycerine and a remote-controlled pipe bomb.
The plot was detailed in floppy disks and a lap-top computer that Yousef left behind when he fled to Pakistan, where he was arrested. He is serving a life sentence in the United States.
A suicide bomber was to dress up as a priest and detonate a bomb close to Pope John Paul's vehicle as it passed on the way to a seminary in Makati City on January 15.
In 1970, Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza managed to get close to Pope Paul VI at Manila international airport disguised as a priest and stabbed him in the stomach and neck before he was wrestled to the ground.
The Pope continued with his visit, choosing not to reveal his injuries publicly.
During his visit Pope Francis - the first non-European pontiff in 1300 years - would not travel in a bulletproof ''Pope mobile'' because he wanted to be closer to his flock, church officials said.
Philippines security agencies, working with foreign intelligence services, are monitoring closely foreigners in the Philippines with suspected links to terror groups like Abu Sayyaf, which claims ties to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the Asia-based Jemaah Islamiah.
The mood in the country, where about 81 percent of 100 million people are Catholic, is festive after the government declared a five-day holiday to mark the visit of Pope Francis, who will travel on Saturday to Tacloban on Leyte, the island hardest hit when the strongest tropical storm recorded struck the central Philippines in November 2013.
Church bells will ring simultaneously across the Philippines to mark the arrival of Pope Francis in Manila on Thursday evening after a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, where Catholics make up just six percent of the nation's 21 million people.
It was 11pm on January 6, 1995 - nine days before Pope John Paul II was due to arrive in the Philippines' capital Manila to visit the city's Rizal Park, where the largest crowd ever for a papal event would gather.
Police called to the apartment discovered that two terrorists had overcooked bomb-making chemicals in a kitchen sink, alerting authorities to an elaborate plot by al-Qaeda to assassinate Pope John Paul and simultaneously blow up 11 planes flying across Asia.
Nineteen years later, amid heightened concerns about acts of violence following the Paris attacks and Martin Place siege, Philippines authorities have mobilised 40,000 police, troops and reservists in the country's largest security operation for the arrival in the majority-Catholic country on Thursday of Pope Francis, 78, who plans to outline his concern for inter-religious dialogue, poverty and the environment.
Church officials expect up to six million people to attend an outdoor mass in Rizal Park on Sunday, offering a pulsating example of the dynamism of the church in the Philippines but also creating a security nightmare.
In 1995, security perimeters were breached and Pope John Paul had to be taken by helicopter to the mass site because his car could not get through the crowd.
This time the Argentinian pontiff with a man-of-the-people reputation who often sets aside security plans and wades into crowds to greet devotees is likely to attract an even bigger crowd, church officials say.
''There will be soldiers rappelling up and down from helicopters to rescue the Pope in case he will be pinned down by a sea of people,'' Philippines military chief Gregorio Catapang said.
''We may airlift or use naval boats to bring the Pope to safety if necessary,'' he said.
Philippines President Benigno Aquino has appealed for devotees to co-operate with security agencies, after a raucous Catholic procession on January 9 in Manila left two men dead and 1000 injured.
''The government cannot do this alone,'' he said.
While security agencies have not revealed knowledge of any specific plot against Pope Francis, al-Qaeda's use of the Philippines as a hub for its activities has raised concerns about another attempt to target this papal visit.
The terror group's 1995 operation in Manila, code-named Bojinka, was a forerunner for the September 11 attacks in the United States six years later.
The plot was developed by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, and Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, who was a mastermind of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre in New York.
Unknown then to security agencies, Bin Laden developed ties in the Philippines in 1988, when he dispatched his brother-in-law Mohammed Jamal Khalifa to the country to recruit fighters for the war in Afghanistan.
Inside suite 603 of the Dona Josefa Apartments police found maps of Manila with routes plotting the papal motorcade, a rosary, Bibles, crucifixes, priest clothing, including robes and collars, and fake passports.
They also found gallons of bombing-making material, including nitroglycerine and a remote-controlled pipe bomb.
The plot was detailed in floppy disks and a lap-top computer that Yousef left behind when he fled to Pakistan, where he was arrested. He is serving a life sentence in the United States.
A suicide bomber was to dress up as a priest and detonate a bomb close to Pope John Paul's vehicle as it passed on the way to a seminary in Makati City on January 15.
In 1970, Bolivian painter Benjamin Mendoza managed to get close to Pope Paul VI at Manila international airport disguised as a priest and stabbed him in the stomach and neck before he was wrestled to the ground.
The Pope continued with his visit, choosing not to reveal his injuries publicly.
During his visit Pope Francis - the first non-European pontiff in 1300 years - would not travel in a bulletproof ''Pope mobile'' because he wanted to be closer to his flock, church officials said.
Philippines security agencies, working with foreign intelligence services, are monitoring closely foreigners in the Philippines with suspected links to terror groups like Abu Sayyaf, which claims ties to Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), and the Asia-based Jemaah Islamiah.
The mood in the country, where about 81 percent of 100 million people are Catholic, is festive after the government declared a five-day holiday to mark the visit of Pope Francis, who will travel on Saturday to Tacloban on Leyte, the island hardest hit when the strongest tropical storm recorded struck the central Philippines in November 2013.
Church bells will ring simultaneously across the Philippines to mark the arrival of Pope Francis in Manila on Thursday evening after a two-day visit to Sri Lanka, where Catholics make up just six percent of the nation's 21 million people.
