The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said Friday it will go on heightened alert Sunday, Jan. 31, after a message and a map found recently along with a rifle grenade in Greenhills Shopping Center in San Juan revealed that the NBI and the Supreme Court (SC) could be targets of an attack this Sunday.

NBI Regional Director Ricardo Diaz, chief of the bureau’s Counter Terrorism Unit (CTU), said the incident could just be part of scare tactics to force the government to transfer Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr., who was tagged in the Nov. 23 massacre in Maguindanao, from the NBI to another detention facility.

“But I believe that it is just scare tactics. The rifle grenade would not explode because it has no blasting cap and a switch. So the purpose is to create fear. It is also possible that the individuals or the group behind this just want the government to transfer Ampatuan to another jail facility,” he said.

Nevertheless, Diaz said the bureau would not take any chances and go on heightened alert, adding that the NBI has expanded the implementation of security measures up to the Supreme Court building.

Diaz said the NBI has beefed up its security to secure Ampatuan and to foil any possible attempt by his supporters to free him from the bureau’s cell.

“Mauubos muna kami bago nila makuha si Ampatuan sa aming custody,” Diaz said.

He said individuals who might try to get Ampatuan out of the bureau jail have to pass through several security blocks. “Ang dami nun,” he said.

“But just the same, we are not taking any chances, we will be on heightened alert by Sunday – which they said is the target date,” he said.

He said when the rifle grenade was found in the Greenhills Shopping Center last Jan. 24, a map was also found marking the SC and NBI sites with "X."

He said the numbers “1-31-10,” apparently referring to Jan. 31, 2010, were also written on the paper, possibly indicating the “target date of the attack.”

Diaz said police found the bottle-shaped rifle grenade kept in a black plastic bag on the second floor of the parking area of the shopping center.

He said the rifle grenade posed no real threat because it was incomplete. “It would not trigger an explosion because it is incomplete,” he said.

Diaz said if ever Ampatuan is transferred to another facility, he should be transferred to a facility much better than the NBI jail.