MANILA – A bomb threat sent hundreds of employees scurrying out of the office of the Ombudsman in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila, police reported on Wednesday.
Police said a still unidentified person called up by phone Wednesday morning about a bomb planted inside the office shortly after the employees arrived at 8 a.m. to start the day’s work.
Police said the phone call heightened tension following an explosion that rocked the five-storey office of the Ombudsman building late Sunday night. Fortunately, no one was reported injured since the office was closed because it was a weekend.
A bomb disposal squad, which was immediately dispatched to the office Wednesday, later reported it did not find any explosive device inside after a two-hour search.
Despite assurances that there was no danger, police said the employees refused to enter the building and resume their work, forcing Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to call it a day.
Members of the Quezon City Police District have been placed under heightened alert and increased police visibility has been in effect since Sunday to protect vital installations and state infrastructure in the city.
This came about after a security guard reported to the police he found Monday morning a package contained in a red belt bag and wrapped in masking tape, which was left near an electric post outside a posh condominium in front of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.
Police confirmed that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her family once lived in a penthouse unit of the condominium.
According to the police, the package contained an explosive device similar to another bomb which a janitor discovered at about the same time inside the compound of the Department of Agriculture about a kilometer away also on Monday morning.
Security and intelligence officials said the bombing of the office of the Ombudsman and the discovery of the explosive devices were part of another destabilization attempt against the Arroyo administration.
The officials alleged that opposition leaders were using rightist elements in the 165,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to overthrow the government.
On the other hand, the opposition reacted strongly as it accused the administration of creating the scenario of another destabilization plot to justify forceful measures to be taken against its critics, including arrests.
For instance, opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson pointed out the administration has everything to gain in the series of bombing attempts in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, particularly in strife-torn Mindanao.
Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), did not rule out the possibility that the spate of bombing attempts is part of a plan to instill fear to justify the imposition of emergency rule and prolong the stay in power of President Arroyo in 2010 when her term expires as provided by the 1986 Constitution.
In Malacanang, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the President remains unperturbed by the turn of events which, he said, has become “seasonal” whenever she is about to deliver her annual state-of-the-nation address before the joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate on July 27.
Remonde quoted intelligence officials as confirming that the bomb attacks and rumors circulating of another coup attempt were scripted to create a scenario to make it appear that the President wants to hang on to power by declaring martial law or by suspending the elections scheduled in May 2010.
Bomb threat sends Ombudsman employees scurrying out in Manila
By Manolo B. Jara, Correspondent
MANILA – A bomb threat sent hundreds of employees scurrying out of the office of the Ombudsman in suburban Quezon City, Metro Manila, police reported on Wednesday.
Police said a still unidentified person called up by phone Wednesday morning about a bomb planted inside the office shortly after the employees arrived at 8 a.m. to start the day’s work.
Police said the phone call heightened tension following an explosion that rocked the five-storey office of the Ombudsman building late Sunday night. Fortunately, no one was reported injured since the office was closed because it was a weekend.
A bomb disposal squad, which was immediately dispatched to the office Wednesday, later reported it did not find any explosive device inside after a two-hour search.
Despite assurances that there was no danger, police said the employees refused to enter the building and resume their work, forcing Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to call it a day.
Members of the Quezon City Police District have been placed under heightened alert and increased police visibility has been in effect since Sunday to protect vital installations and state infrastructure in the city.
This came about after a security guard reported to the police he found Monday morning a package contained in a red belt bag and wrapped in masking tape, which was left near an electric post outside a posh condominium in front of the Ateneo de Manila University in Quezon City.
Police confirmed that President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her family once lived in a penthouse unit of the condominium.
According to the police, the package contained an explosive device similar to another bomb which a janitor discovered at about the same time inside the compound of the Department of Agriculture about a kilometer away also on Monday morning.
Security and intelligence officials said the bombing of the office of the Ombudsman and the discovery of the explosive devices were part of another destabilization attempt against the Arroyo administration.
The officials alleged that opposition leaders were using rightist elements in the 165,000-strong Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to overthrow the government.
On the other hand, the opposition reacted strongly as it accused the administration of creating the scenario of another destabilization plot to justify forceful measures to be taken against its critics, including arrests.
For instance, opposition Senator Panfilo Lacson pointed out the administration has everything to gain in the series of bombing attempts in Metro Manila and other parts of the country, particularly in strife-torn Mindanao.
Lacson, a former chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), did not rule out the possibility that the spate of bombing attempts is part of a plan to instill fear to justify the imposition of emergency rule and prolong the stay in power of President Arroyo in 2010 when her term expires as provided by the 1986 Constitution.
In Malacanang, Press Secretary Cerge Remonde said the President remains unperturbed by the turn of events which, he said, has become “seasonal” whenever she is about to deliver her annual state-of-the-nation address before the joint session of the House of Representatives and the Senate on July 27.
Remonde quoted intelligence officials as confirming that the bomb attacks and rumors circulating of another coup attempt were scripted to create a scenario to make it appear that the President wants to hang on to power by declaring martial law or by suspending the elections scheduled in May 2010.
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