ILOILO CITY – Court hearings and offices at the Ramon Q. Avanceña Hall of Justice here were disrupted yesterday because of a bomb threat, the second in five days.

Hundreds of court employees, judges and lawyers evacuated from the five-story building around 9 a.m. after an unidentified caller warned that two bombs were set to explode there, a report of the Police Precinct 1 of the Iloilo City Police Office said.

The male caller, who spoke in Filipino, told Jerry Aquiña, an employee of the Regional Trial Court Branch 3, that the bombs were placed in the second floor.

The building was evacuated and members of the Philippine National Police Explosive Ordnance Division and bomb-sniffing dogs of the Coast Guard inspected the court rooms and offices.

Senior Insp. Conrado Carganillo, PP1 chief, said they found no traces of bombs and other explosives and allowed the employees and court officials to return to their offices at around 10:30 a.m.

On Monday, an unidentified caller had also warned of bombs set to explode inside the building, after a team from the Department of Justice forced open the office of relieved Iloilo City Prosecutor Efrain Baldago.

Carganillo said he has recommended the court offices to install caller identification systems in their telephones to prevent prank calls.*NPB

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