Filipinos Died In 9/11 Attacks

Today in Philippine History (Philatelic Edition Series 3):

SEPTEMBER 11, 2001

Twenty Filipinos perished during the 9/11 terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. 

It began when 19 terrorists from the Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial planes. Two of the aircraft were crashed into the North and South Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. The third plane crashed into the Pentagon at Arlington, Virginia and the fourth was supposed to be crashed at the White House but passengers of Flight 93 fought the hijackers. The plane eventually ended in an open field in western Pennsylvania. 

The Twin Towers collapsed from the damage of the impacts and the fires, and around 3,000 people from 93 different countries were killed from the WTC attacks.184 civilians and service members perished at the Pentagon while 40 died on Flight 93. 

On January 6 to 7, 1995, six years before 9/11, the Philippine National Police accidentally uncovered the forerunner to the 9/11 attacks when the Doña Josefa apartment in Manila caught fire which led the authorities to discover a cache of bomb-making equipment. 

They found documents that revealed the existence of Operation Bojinka which was a plot hatched by notorious terrorists that resembled 9/11. 

It was a large-scale, three-phase terrorist attack for January 1995. First was to assassinate Pope John Paul II,  blow up 11 airliners in flight from Asia to the United States and kill 4,000 passengers and shut down air travel around the world, and crash a plane into the headquarters of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Virginia. 

The terrorists involved were Pakistani nationals Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the architect of the 9/11 attacks), Ramzi Yousef (his nephew and mastermind of the 1993 WTC car bombing), Abdul Hakim Murad, and Wali Khan Amin Shah, their Afghan financier. 

The group made a test run by bombing a movie house in Manila, a mall in Cebu, and the Philippine Airlines Flight 434 from Cebu bound to Tokyo.

(Design, concept, stamps and research: Richard Allan B. Uy) All rights reserved

Photo credit: wikipedia.org