MANILA, Philippines—Keep calm, don’t panic and get bomb experts involved in deciding whether to suspend classes.
This was the advice given by the National Capital Regional Police Office (NCRPO) when it met on Thursday with the administrators and security managers of schools and universities in Metro Manila to discuss the increasing number of bomb threats disturbing campuses.
NCRPO director Chief Supt. Carmelo Valmoria gathered at least 30 school representatives, including those sent by Ateneo de Manila University, the University of Sto. Tomas and De La Salle University, in an effort come up with guidelines on how they can respond to bomb threats usually made through phone calls or text messages.
Chief Insp. Robert Domingo, NCRPO spokesman, said the alarming number of bomb threats received by schools prompted Valmoria to call for the meeting.
Records presented at the meeting showed that nine out of the 21 reported bomb threats in Metro Manila since the start of the year were directed at schools.
The latest was received on Wednesday by Makati National High School, prompting its officials to suspend classes. After a search by bomb experts, the school was found to be safe and the threat was declared a hoax.
“Although schools should always assess where the threat is coming from, it should always be their golden rule to treat bomb threats as real,” said Senior Supt. Allen Bantolo, chief of the NCRPO directorial staff.
“The first thing to do is to call bomb experts. It is for the bomb experts to decide whether to suspend classes and isolate certain areas,” Bantolo said. “The key is not to panic and keep the information only to those concerned.”
The NCRPO had begun drafting a set of procedures that schools could follow to complement the police response but it’s still up to individual schools to come up with their own systems for assessing security risks, Bantolo said.
One security manager suggested during the meeting that each school set up a crisis committee for such situations, Bantolo added.