Suspect in PHINMA UPang bomb threat identified
AFTER THREE-DAY POLICE INVESTIGATION
THE identity of the person who posted a bomb threat at the PHINMA University of Pangasinan in Dagupan City on August 12 that sowed fear and panic not only among students, faculty members and officials of the university but also the entire city has been determined by the police.
The identity of the suspect, who posed himself as a certain “Jerrie Mandapat,” was uncovered through the combined efforts of the Dagupan City Police led by P/Lt. Colonel Lawrence Keith Calub and the Regional Cyber Crime Division of Police Regional Office 1.
The bomb threat post was also reported to Meta, the company that owns Facebook, to verify and confirm the user’s identity.
Mayor Belen Fernandez, in a post from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she is attending the ASEAN Governors and Mayors Forum, commended the fast and bold actions of all elements of the police in immediately identifying the source of the bomb threat.
Fernandez said the Dagupan Police is now preparing the corresponding case against the suspect for filing in court, which and lead to his immediate arrest.
She also gave a special message to the suspect: “ihahabol sa yo ang buong bigat ng batas at papanagutin ka ng bawat oras ng pangamba at perhuwisyong iyong idinulot.”
The assumed name Jerrie Mandapat was used by the suspect when he posted on August 9 on Facebook that he planted seven explosives in different parts of the UPang campus, which turned out to be a hoax after the police Explosive Ordnance Detection (EOD) Unit, aided by bomb sniffing dogs, cleared the area but found no bomb.
The day after the police operations, classes and regular operations at the campus resumed.
Coincidentally, two other schools in Sta. Barbara town received bomb threats a day later, on August 13 – the Minien National High School and the Minien Elementary School.
Both threats also turned out to be a hoax after the schools were thoroughly inspected by an EOD team from the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office. (Leonardo Micua)
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