San Beda calls off classes after getting bomb threat

MANILA, Philippines—Another school in Metro Manila has fallen prey to a bomb threat which later turned out to be a hoax.

The students, faculty and personnel of San Beda College in Mendiola, Manila, were evacuated around midday on Tuesday after several teachers and officials received text messages that a bomb had been planted within the campus.

The school—the latest of several educational institutions in Manila that have received bomb threats this year—also had to suspend classes for the rest of the day.

Members of the Manila Police District’s Explosives and Ordnance Division (EOD) as well as members of special explosives units from the Philippine Army and Presidential Security Group were called in to respond to the threat.

However, Chief Insp. Marissa Bruno, MPD spokesperson, revealed that the threat was only a hoax.

“There was no explosive device found by the EOD units after they finished searching the campus around 2:30 p.m.,” Bruno said.

San Beda College-Manila is at least the eighth school in Metro Manila to receive a bomb threat this year.

Other schools that had gotten similar threats which also turned out to be hoaxes were the Ateneo de Manila University, University of Santo Tomas, St. Paul College-Pasig, Makati High School, the Navotas Polytechnic College, Far Eastern University and Polytechnic University of the Philippines.