By NITZ ARANCON,
JOEY NACALABAN
Correspondents
and URIEL C. QUILINGUING
Contributing Editor
A STILL unidentified prankster caused the disruption of classes at the state-run Misamis Oriental General Comprehensive High School (Mogchs) and a traffic jam in downtown Cagayan de Oro as police moved to search a bomb that wasn’t there.
The school’s officials sent over 10 thousand and 200 teachers home past 1 pm because of the bomb prank.
The bomb scare resulted in a vehicular jam on Don Apolinar Velez Street and surrounding areas as thousands rushed outside the campus.
It all started with a text message about a supposed bomb inside the school sent to Mogchs principal Pedro Estaño Jr..
The text message, received at around 12:18 pm, reads: “A bomb will explode inside the campus at 1 pm. Many students will die.”
Estaño received it while while he was taking lunch.
Teachers, students and parents, canteen workers and even guards were seen rushing outside the school.
Estaño said he did not take the “bomb threat” lightly and so, he directed school department heads to immediately send all students home.
He said he also directed the school’s security and utility groups to make sure there will be no stampede at the school’s entrance and exit gates on Don Apolinar Velez Street.
M/Sgt. Renee Rabosa of the Cogon police said authorities found no bomb and concluded that the text message provided false information.
Rabosa said it was Estaño who called up and asked for police assistance after he was sent a text message about a bomb that was supposedly expected to go off inside the campus yesterday afternoon.
Police quickly sent officers and members of its bomb squad and Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) to secure Mogchs and search the campus. They concluded the search after an hour but by then, almost everyone left the school already.
Highly trained bomb-sniffing dogs were used as police combed the area.
Rabosa said the text message was a terrible joke.
Estaño thanked the police for the quick response, and gave them the cellphone number of the texter so they could work on identifying the prankster.
Although located in the city proper, Mogchs is under the schools division of Misamis Oriental. It is one of the biggest public high schools in Mindanao with about 500 teaching and non-teaching personnel.
