Bomb threat disrupts court operations

CEBU, Philippines —  For the third time this year, the Cebu City Hall of Justice was rocked with a bomb threat from a text message from unknown sender Friday afternoon resulting in the disruption of the operations of the city courts.

 A court worker received a text message from anonymous sender warning him of an alleged bomb planted inside the Qimonda Building at the North Reclamation Area. 

"Please be careful. As much as I don't want to sew fear, but as a person with conscience, I need to do this. The building is under threat of bombing, I will be guilty if I will not let you know about this. Please tell the police to prioritize branches 13, 11 and 17. Be careful everyone. Keep calm but please report this immediately."

The message was received at 1:25 p.m. prompting the police to immediately deploy K-9 personnel and bomb disposal team from the Regional Explosive Ordnance Disposal Unit. Court personnel were asked to evacuate the building while clearing operations were done.

After nearly two hours of sweeping through the entire building, the police found no traces of bomb.

Police Major Joseph Escuro, Officer-in-Charge of EOD, said they will submit the text message to the cybercrime unit for further investigation.

"As of now, i-forward po namin to sa responsible unit lalo na po sa Anti-Cybercrime Unit namin para ma imbestigahan po," Escuro said.

It was the third time this year that the courthouse received such threat. In March and May this year the courts also received similar threats but were found to be hoax.

Escuro said they have constantly trained court personnel on how to react to bomb threats.

“Patuloy pa naming pinapaigting lalo na po yong pag-conduct namin ng simulation exercises together with the management," Escuro said.

"At the same time, tinuturuan din po namin na kung paano nila i-handle yung mga ganitong situation na hindi kaagad nagkakaroon ng confusion sa mga empleyado at sa mga tao," he added. — FPL (FREEMAN)