A member of the Cebu City police’s bomb squad and his K-9 take a break after they were sent to the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, to check on an abandoned bag suspected to contain bomb. The bag turned out to contain only clothes and toiletries. / Photo by Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — The Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral management today appealed to the public to properly take care of their belongings and not leave it anywhere in the church’s ground after an abandoned bag thought to be containing a bomb caused alarm among priests and churchgoers on Thursday, January 10.
Msgr. Ruben Labajo, team moderator of the ecclesiastical seat of the Cebu Archdiocese, said the bag was found by a security guard near the side entrance of the Cathedral at around 7 a.m.
“We called up the police who in turn sought the assistance of the bomb experts,” he said.
Labajo said they were worried especially after a police K-9 dog, which was brought in by the bomb squad and the Waterfront Police Precinct, sat near the bag, supposedly indicating that it contained a bomb.
The responding bomb squad, however, did not find any explosive inside the bag. “It only contained clothes,” Labajo said.
The bag abandoned at the Cebu Metropolitan Cathedral on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2019, and inspected by the police shows it only contained clothes, toiletries and a book./ Photo from the Cebu City Waterfront Police Precinct
The incident prompted Labajo to cancel the 12:15 p.m. Mass.
“I appeal to people to not leave their belongings behind as it may cause alarm. Just consider how this incident today disrupted our services,” he said.
Labajo said they will look into the closed-circuit television footages of the Cathedral to find out who owned the bag.
“I guess, it was owned by a mentally-challenged man who always carries a bag here,” he said./elb
Read related story here: Bomb squad rushed to Cebu Cathedral over unattended bag; found to contain clothes