FOR the fourth time this year, the Cebu City Hall of Justice at Qimonda Building in Barangay Mabolo received bomb threats on Thursday afternoon, Oct. 20, 2022, disrupting the court operations for nearly two hours.
Just like the bomb threats that it received on March 9, May 26 and July 15, the building was empty of explosives.
Mabolo Police Station chief Maj. Erano Regidor said the personnel of special police units Explosive Ordnance Division and Canine Group swept the whole building after receiving a report about it at 1:19 p.m.
They found no bombs and declared the Qimonda Building safe at 2:45 p.m.
Regidor said they already have a person of interest, or an individual who may have knowledge about the bomb scare.
This person, he said, had a court hearing in each of the past three bomb scares.
The fourth bomb threat sent by anonymous senders came 10 days after President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. signed into law the SIM Registration Act last Oct. 10, which Councilor Phillip Zafra said could put an end to bomb scares in Cebu City.
The law has yet to take effect pending the release of its implementing rules and regulations.
Two clerks of court of the Municipal Trial Courts in Cities branches received similar bomb threats — the first one received the message at 1:01 p.m. from 09202185758, while the other employee received the bomb scare at 1:13 p.m. from 09336902544 and got it again two minutes later from 09397853498.
The message read, “Bomb detonates today @ 4th floor and 3rd Floor vehicle GXT-2951 last to explode in the vicinity.”
The last part of the bomb threat mentioned a religious deity and contained profanity. (BBT / KAL)