Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office Central Visayas (PRO-7), said that they are investigating the recent bomb scare targeting government agencies. | Emmariel Ares
CEBU CITY, Philippines – The police in Central Visayas wanted to identify the individual/individuals who are behind the hoax bomb scare in government offices here and in other parts on the country.
On Monday, occupants of the Cebu City Hall of Justice received a hoax bomb scare which caused the disruption of their operations.
The same was also experienced by government offices in other parts of the country like the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) and Department of Science and Technology (DOST) in Manila, the Department of Education (DepEd) office in Bataan and local government of Iba in Zambales.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Gerard Ace Pelare, spokesperson of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7), said they are joining in the investigation of these hoax threats to identify who are behind these.
“Right now, we are conducting thorough investigation para ma-identify [whoever is responsible]. Not only the PNP, actually is conducting investigation. Naa tay parallel investigation sa NBI and other law enforcement agencies,” Pelare said.
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According to a report by the INQUIRER, a person claiming to be a Japanese national, Takahiro Karasawa, was traced to have been responsible for the bomb scare that were sent via email to the concerned government agencies.
The same email was also sent to receivers in other countries.
Quick response
As they join in the investigation, Pelare said that the police will also be on alert to ensure quick response to a bomb scare to prevent panic and unnecessary injuries.
“We always take it seriously. We cannot just say nga basin false alarm na. You can see the response of your police nga adtuon gyud. Adtuon og canine, adtuon og bomb squad, in order to make sure nga dili gyud mabiktima ang atong mga katawhan og mga ingon ani nga terrorism activity,” he said.
In case of a hoax threat, Pelare said that they will still investigate and identify the one who reported this to authorities to impose the necessary sanctions.
Presidential Decree 1727 says that any person caught maliciously disseminating false information to threaten the safety of others or damage properties will be punished with imprisonment of not more than 5 years and/or a fine of around P40,000.
Disrupting peace and order
So far, Pelare said they haven’t found any indication that the recent bomb scares were done by an organized crime group.
He said that there was great possibility that these were orchestrated by a person who wishes to disrupt peace due to a personal grudge or even boredom.
“As far as [our] monitoring is concerned, wala tay nakita nga indicatior nga organized ni siya, nga terrorism act ni siya,” he said.
“This is most likely kining mga wala lay mahimo sa kinabuhi nila or naa silay mga personal grudges, who want to create chaos,” Pelare added.
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