Text pranksters cause bomb scares in Pampanga

MABALACAT, Pampanga — Bomb scares are taking their toll on businesses and other activities in this province as pranksters circulate text messages warning of bomb threats in shopping malls or reports of people being killed in bomb explosions.

The effect of such a bomb scare was obvious during the sparsely attended two-night tigtigan-terakan keng dalan (street music and dancing) highlighting the fiesta celebration in Angeles City last Friday and Saturday.

Only a few hundred people attended, unlike in past years when the affair attracted huge crowds that left almost no room for people to move around, residents said.

Reports that a bomb exploded and killed a suspected terrorist in Lubao town spread like wildfire yesterday, but a check ordered by Chief Superintendent Oscar Calderon, Central Luzon police director, revealed that it was merely a case of a boy who had ignited firecracker powder.

The STAR called up the office of Lubao Mayor Dennis Pineda and his staffers denied such a bombing incident occurred. They, however, said that they heard of a bomb threat at the SM shopping mall in San Fernando City the previous day.

Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, Pampanga police director, said there have been many text pranksters in the province lately, but he gave assurance that the police remain on alert despite these false alarms.

This town’s police chief, Senior Superintendent Keith Singian, said pranksters have been spreading false alarms through texting.

A few days ago, panic struck local folk after news spread that a bomb was planted at the Makro shopping mall here, but it proved to be a hoax.

"I am asking people to report the cellphone numbers of those sending such text messages," Singian said.

Earlier, Calderon said there were no indications that there were active Muslim extremist groups in Central Luzon.

This, as intelligence reports claimed that groups identified with the al-Qaeda international terrorist network of Osama bin Laden have transferred to Bulacan after their training camps in Pangasinan and Tarlac were raided last May.