Search on for caller in Cebu bomb hoax

A teacher leads her students in evacuating Zapatera Elementary School in Cebu City after school officials received a bomb threat from an unidentified caller. —LITO TECSON/CEBU DAILY NEWS

CEBU CITY—The police have started searching for the caller who pulled off a series of bomb threats that led to the suspension of classes in more than 100 public schools in Cebu City this week.

Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City police, said they were coordinating with the Philippine National Police’s Anti-Cybercrime Unit to identify the prankster.

The bomb threats were first received by the office of the Department of Education’s (DepEd) Cebu City division on Imus Road on Tuesday morning.

Rhea Fe Sarmiento, secretary of Cebu City Division Superintendent Bianito Dagatan, said a man called their office at 8:39 a.m. and claimed that a bomb was planted in the building.

Shortly after the phone call was made to the DepEd office, Zapatera Elementary School, located at the back of the building, received the same threat.
Apart from Zapatera, public schools in the villages of Mabolo, Lahug and Labangon as well as Gothong High School and City Central School also received calls warning of a supposed explosion.

Although no bomb was found after inspections in these school buildings, the series of threats forced Dagatan to recommend the suspension of classes in all 58 public elementary schools and 54 high schools in the city.

The police got hold of the mobile phone number, which was registered with a caller ID from the DepEd Cebu City office.

Through a Facebook search, the number was later traced to a public high school school teacher in Ilagan City in Isabela province.

‘Not a bad person’

But the owner, Karen Mae Calautit, 27, said she had nothing to do with the bomb threats in Cebu.

“I am not a bad person. I am living peacefully. Cebu is far from our hometown and I am so busy to do those things,” she said in a telephone interview. “God knows I can’t do that.”

Calautit, a teacher for six years now, said she was surprised when her husband, a policeman working in the Cagayan Valley regional police, called her while she was in the middle of her class on Tuesday.

“He told me that my cell phone number was used in a series of bomb hoaxes in Cebu City. I was really shocked. I can’t help but cry,” she said.

Calautit said she went to the local police station to clear her name.

She said she lost her mobile phone about two months ago.

“It was raining hard at that time. While riding a motorcycle, I did not notice that my phone, which I placed in my pocket, fell off. It was only when I got home that I noticed it was missing,” Calautit said.

Calautit hoped that the person behind the series of bomb threats in Cebu City would be arrested.

“I hope the real culprit will be identified and placed behind bars,” she said.