Man nabbed after threatening to burn down Kalibo airport

ILOILO CITY, Philippines—Police arrested a man believed to be mentally disturbed after he threatened to burn down the Kalibo International Airport on Wednesday evening.

Security guards prevented the man from entering the terminal but he was later arrested after he burned piles of dried rice stalks along the airport’s access road, airport manager Percy Malonesio said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Malonesio said the man, who wore only a pair of shorts, tried to enter the terminal around 6:30 p.m. and threatened to burn the building down.

He was stopped at the security outpost but he later proceeded to a rice field less than 100 meters from the building.

Airport firefighters put out the fires on the rice field as the burning haystacks caused thick smoke that could have disrupted flights.

The man, described to be in his 50s, was detained at the Kalibo police station, said Senior Police Officer 4 Serafin Ismael of the station’s operations section.

He said they were still determining his identity and trying to locate his family because the man was incoherent when investigated by policemen.