CEBU City Mayor Tomas Osmeña allayed fears of locators and workers at the Cebu IT Park amid reports of a vintage bomb recovered at a construction site in the area.
“I would like to strongly emphasize that there is absolutely no need to panic. This is not the first time an old bomb has been found in I.T. Park and this will not be the last time,” Osmeña posted on his Facebook page.
Some netizens and people working in IT Park in Barangay Apas panicked after posts on several Facebook accounts such as Our Cebu and Cebu Flash Report about the discovery of a vintage bomb went viral.
In an interview with Cebu Daily News, an employee of a fastfood chain in IT Park said that he knew about the vintage bomb last Saturday.
“Okay ra man to. Nabalita pa man gani. Ang nakapait karon ni viral nga niingon nga mobuto daw maong papahawaon mi dinhi,” the employee said, who requested anonymity.
(It was okay when I heard about it. The bad thing now are posts on social media that went viral, that the bomb would most likely explode)
“(The vintage bomb is not something new) The only difference is now some idiot FB page decided to sensationalize the situation by saying there is a 40% chance it will explode. This is completely untrue. What we are doing now is simply precaution…The (administrators) of this page should be ashamed of themselves for perpetuating panic with fake news,” Osmeña said.
Councilor David Tumulak said the public has nothing to worry about because explosive experts from the Explosives Ordnance Division (EOD) of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and Armed Forces of the Philippines Central Command (AFP-Centcom) have been alerted and deployed.
“We have to rely on the experts because they are knowledgeable of the situation and the consequences,” Tumulak said.
He said that as far as he could remember, the vintage bomb discovered last Saturday is the third bomb recovered in the area.
He said the bombs recovered in IT Park were properly disposed of with no untoward incidents.
Police Regional Office director in Central Visayas (PRO-7) Chief Supt. Jose Mario Espino said that public should refrain from immediately believing posts on social media.
“The public should verify first to PNP or other sources so it will be verified if the news is correct,” Espino said.
Meanwhile, Tumulak said that the vintage bomb will be brought at dawn today to Carmen Copper.
“This is just for security reasons,” Tumulak said.