Police after person behind DepEd Cebu City office bomb scare

Policemen search the DepEd Cebu City office following a bomb scare on Monday morning, June 28. | Pegeen Maisie Sararana

CEBU CITY, Philippines —Policemen are now looking for the individual who sent the text message informing occupants of the DepEd Cebu City Schools Divisions office on the presence of a bomb in their building.

A bomb scare is punishable by law, says Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).

It was already the third time this year that the DepEd Cebu City office received a bomb threat via text message.  The first message was received on February 20 while the second one was sent on March 4.

On Monday morning, June 28, the text message coming from a still unidentified sender was received by Dr. Rhea Mar Angtud, the city’s schools division superintendent.

But since Angtud was on leave, she immediately forwarded the message to them so they could seek police assistance, says Bernadette Susvilla, the division’s officer-in-charge.

Explosive Ordnance Disposal personnel, who search the DepEd office, where unable to locate any bomb from the building located along Imus Road in Barangay Day-as, Cebu City.

The DepEd office was “cleared” at about 11 a.m. or after almost three hours of search.

READ: Bomb threat alarms DepEd Cebu City officials

Susvilla clarified that there was no truth to accusations of delays in the release of DepEd allowances.

“On the claim on financial allowance, I can assure that there is no delay in processing. But we still have to ensure that the usual processing, speeding up, processing of the claim should be done,” she said.

Allowances for the month of May were already released while the allowances for June is now on process, she said.

Susvilla said that following the bomb scare on Monday she will also order a review of their health and safety protocols. / dcb