Court of Appeals receives bomb threat

By Ronron
March 17, 2008

The Court of Appeals (CA) received on Monday morning a bomb threat from an unknown person, which authorities later declared to be a hoax.

A CA employee said a male-sounding person called up the court’s trunkline number (5241241) at around 8:20 am and first asked a female telephone operator if it was the CA.

The CA is located along Maria Orosa Street in Ermita District, Manila City.

When the operator responded in the affirmative, the caller said in Filipino: “Be careful, something will explode in a few minutes.” The caller then dropped the phone, the employee said.

Immediately, the operator reported the matter to Associate Justices Normandie Pizarro and Remedios Salazar-Fernando, and the guard on duty, who promptly sought police assistance.

The CA employee said there were some people in the CA building at that time, preparing to attend the court’s flag ceremony at 8:30 am.

But she said there was no commotion when everybody went out of the building to give way to members of the Manila Police District (MPD) Explosives and Ordnance Division in inspecting the entire edifice.

Elements of the MPD Station 5 and the National Bureau of Investigation also responded to the incident, said another CA employee.

The employees said the police officially declared the building as bomb-free shortly before 10 am, allowing the CA employees to go back to their normal job.

The office of Atty. Teresita Marigomen, the CA Clerk of Court, said there were no controversial cases to be heard during the day, which, possibly, may be the target of disruption by the bomb scare.

On January 31, 2006, a pillbox exploded outside the CA building, but authorities linked it to a fraternity war despite the claim of responsibility by the Taong Bayan at Kawal ng Pilipinas (People and Soldiers of the Philippines) shadowy group./DMS