At least six government agencies and some public schools in Bataan, Zambales and Cebu received bomb threats yesterday, which all turned out to be false alerts.
The threat reportedly stemmed from an email sent from a Japanese address by a certain Takahiro Karasawa, who identified himself as a lawyer.
“I set high-performance bombs in major Philippine government offices. Those bombs will explode at approximately 3:34 p.m. on February 12. Unlike previous bomb threats, it really explodes and many people die,” the email sender wrote.
The Department of Environment and Natural Resources headquarters in Quezon City suspended work yesterday as an explosive ordnance disposal team from the QC Police District conducted an inspection in response to the bomb threat.
The Philippine Information Agency also announced that the PNP Bomb Disposal squad confirmed there were no explosive devices found in its office building.
“Upon conducting paneling operations and thorough inspections, the results yielded negative and no signs of any bombs or any Improvised Explosive Device (IED) was found thereat,” the QCPD said.
“This Japanese national was also the one responsible for a bomb threat at MRT Kamuning Station last September 2023,” it added.
Justice Secretary Jesus Remulla on Monday directed the National Bureau of Investigation to conduct a thorough probe into the bomb threats.
“There should be no place for pranks or spreading fear among our people. Let this be a warning to those behind this that we will not tolerate such acts and we will go after you with the full extent of the law,” he said.
The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center said it will ask the government of Japan to investigate and identify the sender.
“As reported, CICC together with the Philippine National Police and the MIS personnel of these agencies, recovered multiple emails sent to several people in their said agencies,” CICC executive director Alexander Ramos said.
“Efforts are on the way to request the Japanese government to investigate thoroughly and identify the sender,” he added.
The Korea Times, a newspaper based in Seoul, also reported about the same email bomb threat from the same sender last year, which targeted similar government offices.