FACTORY worker Jasmin Sala covers her face as she cried her heart out after she was arrested and detained at the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) for jokingly telling a mall security guard that she had a bomb inside her bag (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA).
Choose your jokes.
A 37-year-old female production worker from Mandaue City learned her lesson too late, ended in prison and might even have to postpone or even cancel her trip abroad after she was arrested for dropping a bomb joke at an uptown mall in Cebu City past 11 a.m. yesterday.
Jasmin Sala, up to last night, tried hard to convince the police to free her but to no avail. She will be spending the long weekend holiday in jail.
Police were not allowing her to get away with the bomb joke, particularly at this time when the country is under a State of National Emergency due to lawless violence sparked by the Sept. 2 bombing in Davao City that left 14 dead and 67 others injured and because of unfounded rumors that Cebu could be the next target of bomb attacks.
Charges for violating Presidential Decree (PD) 1727, often referred to as the Bomb Joke Law, will be filed against Sala before the Cebu City Prosecutors’ Office when work resumes on Tuesday, Sept. 13. The law provides for a jail term of up to five years and a fine of up to P40,000 for violators found guilty by the hearing court.
Sala’s arrest should serve as a lesson to the public to avoid making bomb jokes, said SPO1 Rommel Oporto, investigator of the Cebu City Police Office’s (CCPO) Investigation, Detection and Management Branch (IMDB).
“This is not an ordinary issue. The public should avoid making bomb jokes especially after the explosion in Davao City that scared many people,” Oporto said.
‘Naa ra ba ni bomba’
Sala, a single mother of two young children, who was bound for work in Japan, was at the entrance of the Robinson’s Place Cebu with a companion when they stopped by a security guard for the customary bag inspection.
Before she walked away, she told the guard, “Naa ra ba ni bomba (There’s a bomb inside my bag).”
She smiled, told the guard she was just joking and proceeded to a photo studio to have an ID photo taken as requirement for her visa application.
After about 20 minutes, after she got her ID photos, the mall’s head security officer approached and invited her for questioning at the establishment’s office. She was eventually turned over to the custody of the CCPO.
A thorough check by the police showed Sala’s bag did not contain any explosive.
Inside her bag were a lipstick, some makeup items and a cell phone.
Sala, a resident of Bacatan Compound in Barangay Tipolo, Mandaue City, sobbed hard, saying she regretted making a bomb joke.
“Joke ra gyud to akoa. Wala to nako tuyo-a. Karon pa ko nakahibawo nga bawal diay na siya. (I was just joking. It was not deliberate. I didn’t know until now that it was not allowed),” she told reporters.
Sala, who has long been separated from her husband, appealed to the police to release her, saying there was no one who could take care of her two children, a two-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy.
According to Sala, she left her two children to the care of her mother while processing her papers for Japan.
“Dako kaayo ang akong pagmahay. Nagbasol ko sa akong gibuhat. Pasayloa og tabangi intawon ko ninyo. (I regretted what I did. I’m sorry. Please forgive and help me),” she wailed.
“Dili na gyud ko mousab. Promise. Wala na gyud koy buhaton nga ingon niini nga joke. Paulia lang intawn ko kay kinsa naman lang ang mobantay sa akong mga anak? Gihilantan pa gyud ang kinamanghuran. (I will not make any bomb joke again. Promise. Please let me go home because who would look after my two children? The youngest has a fever),” she added.
The tears, cajoling and begging did not, however, work with the police.
The Bomb Joke Law
Sala, a production worker at the Mactan Export Processing Zone (MEPZ) in Lapu-Lapu City, is detained at the CPPO’s stockade at Camp Sutero Cabahug along Gorordo Avenue, where she will be held until a case for violation of PD 1727 has been filed against her on Tuesday, according to Supt. Ryan Devaras, head of the CCPO’s IMDB.
PD 1727, which was enacted in October 1980, declares as unlawful the malicious dissemination of false information and willful threat concerning bombs, explosives or any similar device, through word of mouth, use of mail, telephone, telegraph, printed materials and other means of communication.
Violators face five years in jail or a fine of P40,000 or both depending on the court’s ruling.
Gerly Salimbagon, chief security of Robinsons Place Fuente, said they did not take Sala’s joke lightly.
“Dili na kakompyansahan ron kay bomba na gud na ang atong gihisgutan. (We could not be complacent because we’re talking here of a bomb),” he said.
Devaras said the police will pursue the charges against Sala with or without the support of the management of Robinsons Place Cebu.
“We will definitely file (the case),” he said.
Oporto was puzzled as to why Sala had to make a bomb joke amid the government’s continuing appeal to avoid acts that will create panic among the public.
“Nganong naghimo man ka og joke nga ingon ana inday oi? Grabe kaayo na rong mga panahona. (Why did you make such a joke? You should have known that we’re very critical [about anything pertaining to bombs] at this time),” he told the woman, who just repeated her appeal to release her.
Had many people heard Sala making the bomb joke at Robinsons Place Cebu yesterday, the policeman said there could have been a commotion and panic.
Vigilance
Early this week, a text message alleging that the bandit group Abu Sayyaf was planning to bomb malls in Cebu spread among mobile phone users in the city and caused fear among a number of people.
Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), appealed to the public to stay calm but to be vigilant.
Both the PRO-7 and the Armed Forces of the Philippines’ Central Command (Centcom) have been placed under full alert status immediately after the explosion in a night market in Davao City last Sept. 2.
Taliño has ordered random checkpoints and sent additional policemen alongside troops from Centcom to patrol the vicinity of malls, ports, airport, markets, churches and other crowded places.
He urged the public to immediately seek police assistance whenever they notice something unusual in their respective areas.
Last Sept. 3, President Rodrigo Duterte declared “a state of lawlessness” or “a state of lawless violence” to counter terrorism.
Two days after, he signed a proclamation to put the Philippines under a State of National Emergency on account of lawless violence.
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