'Terrorist' causes bomb scares in 3 buildings

MANILA, Philippines - A “terrorist” sent bomb threats to three buildings in Quezon City yesterday.

“Hi! I’m Rosalina S. Sarmiento. Isa akong terorista,” the text message stated.

The message was sent to workers at the Maxima Building along Quezon Avenue, the CSP Building also along Quezon Avenue and the President’s Tower along Timog Avenue. 

Maxima is a construction firm. At President’s Tower, the receiver of the text message was a staff at San Jose Builders, also a construction firm.

Inspector Noel Sublay, head of the Explosives and Ordnance Division of the Quezon City Police District, said the text messages came in minutes apart from each other after 9 a.m. Policemen inspected the areas but found no explosives.

According to Sublay, a person using the same name also sent a similar text message to a staff of Convergys at the UP Ayala Technohub at past 1 p.m. on Monday. The threat turned out to be a hoax.

Sublay said the four text messages came from the same cellular phone number, whose owner was not answering calls by the police.

At the end of the message, the sender uttered invectives and said the occupants of the buildings would die.