By Aletha Jasmine C. Dela Cruz THE DEPARTMENT of Education (DepEd) has called on school officials to tighten their institution’s police security and surveillance due to the series of bomb threats that followed the blast in the Davao City Roxas Night Market. “We also remind our school officials to intensify security and be extra vigilant to ensure the safety of our teachers, students, and personnel,” DepEd said in a statement issued via its official Facebook page last Sept.7. The Department also appealed for the presence of police officers near schools.
“While the said bomb threats turned out to be a hoax, we reiterate our call for police visibility near the schools,” the statement readPolice Insp. Godofreed Zantua of the Sampaloc Police Station told the Echo Today in a text message that the members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) continue to do their job through “motorized patrols, police visibility along the vicinity of every [campus], and installation of police assistance desks and outposts.” “With regard to security, schools have its discretion to add security personnel in their respective campuses,” Zantua added. Days after the bombing in the Roxas Night Market on Sept. 2 that killed 14 and injured about 70 people, several schools—mostly in Metro Manila—claimed to have received bomb threats that caused suspension of classes. The University of the Philippines received a text message from an anonymous sender, saying that his group has put a bomb inside the University. The College of the Holy Spirit Manila, a school near Malacañang, also received a text message from a claiming “Abu Raja” of the Abu Sayaff, saying that his group planted bombs in the Palace. Facebook messages allegedly from the Philippine Red Cross (PRC) saying four female suicide bombers were ordered by the Abu Sayyaf to detonate bombs in the malls in Manila, also became viral. PRC immediately denied the statement, urging the public to be “prudent in believing and sharing such unverified statement that may cause unnecessary panic and fear.” President Rodrigo Duterte has declared a “state of lawlessness” on Sept. 3 to ensure the combined efforts of the police and the military in countering terrorism, following the Abu Sayyaf’s statement owning up to the recent explosion in Davao City. The officials of National Capital Region Police Office also had to declare a full alert within Manila on the same day, allowing PNP and Armed Forces of the Philippines to immediately put up checkpoints all over the country. E
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