BALANGA CITY – The Bataan Peninsula State University branch here on Friday suspended its classes for about 4,000 students due to a bomb threat that, however, turned out to be a hoax.
Supt. Joel Tampis, Balanga City police chief, said that for almost two hours, members of the city police, police explosive ordnance division, Bureau of Fire Protection and city marshalls conducted paneling at all rooms and buildings.
“Wala namang nakita kaya sinabihan na lamang namin ang school officials na ipagbigay-alam agad sa amin kung may makikitang kakaiba,” the police chief said.
No less than Senior Supt. Audie Atienza, newly assigned provincial police director, went to the school and conferred with Delfin Magpantay, BPSU president and checked the situation with the EOD headed by Supt. Alfred dela Roca.
Members of the EOD and the Bureau of Fire inspected every nook and corner of the campus including flower pots and garbage cans.
Tampis said they were informed of the text message received from the police hotline 117 and immediately asked school officials to inform students and employees to leave the campus. “So as not to create panic, we told the students that we are conducting an emergency inspection,” the chief of police said.
Mary Ann Casupanan, BPSU branch administrator, said they did not tell the students of the real reason why they were told to leave the school at about 1 in the afternoon. “Ayaw naming mag-create ng panic kaya sinabihan namin ang mga estudyante na may special emergency inspection lamang,” she said.
Jan Carlo Salaveria, BPSU clerk, said he did not carry with him his cellphone and found out at 10 a.m that there was text message received at 8:57 a.m.
“May dalawang oras kayo sa BPSU para ilikas ang mga estudyante, may sasabog na bomba maya-maya,” was the first text message he received, followed a few minutes later with “May estudyanteng kasapi ng samahan ang nagpasok ng pampasabog sa isa sa mga gusali.”
The third text message read “Ipaalam sa pamunuan” and at past 2 p.m. “Mabuhay ang mga manggagawa, puksain ang mga mapang-api.”
Traffic stalled at the busy street in front of BPSU as police officers and city marshalls shooed away students.
