A bomb threat which authorities later said was triggered by a prank call stirred up the Bacolod City Hall yesterday.

Hilda Lluisima of the city government’s Human Resource Department said Joan Buyco, a casual employee in their office, received a call at around 11:15 a.m. from a man who said a bomb will explode at the HR office at 11:30 a.m.

Buyco relayed to her the message and they contacted the Mayor’s Office to report the call, Lluisima said.

After receiving a call from the city hall about the bomb threat, City Mobile Group head Leo Erwin Agpangan said they immediately dispatched a team for perimeter closure.

Although they did not find any bomb at the HRD, Agpangan said they subjected all four floors of the city hall to a thorough inspection with the help of K-9 dogs from the Philippine Coast Guard.

As a standard operating procedure, employees were instructed to vacate their offices and since it was time for their lunch break, official transactions at the city hall were not affected, Agpangan said.

The “sanitation” of the whole building was completed at around 1:15 p.m. and no bomb was found, he said.

Mayor Evelio Leonardia, who was having his regular press conference at the Mayor’s Office, said the call could have been from somebody who has nothing better to do.

Although it was a prank call, Leonardia said city hall’s security was alerted and they had to respond to the situation and ensure everyone’s safety.

Some city hall employees who heard about the bomb threat immediately dismissed it as a prank call and stayed at their offices and waited until noon to take their lunch break.* NAB

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