By Leilanie G. Adriano
Staff Reporter
LAOAG CITY—Several employees of the Provincial Capitol building were alerted on the morning of August 5, 2019, following a bomb scare at the east wing of the Capitol compound.
At about 8:20 a.m., a maintenance staff noticed an unattended bag left near the Capitol 3-G generation park, which prompted guards on duty to call the police.
Capitol employees and other visitors however kept going about their work while a bomb squad with a sniffing dog cleared the area.
“We are thankful it’s negative,” said Michael Pe Benito, of the Provincial Resiliency Office under the provincial government of Ilocos Norte who saw the incident.
The police traced the bayong to be owned by travelers bound to Pangasinan as they left their belongings in the area while waiting for a ride.
It’s the latest false alarm in Laoag as residents were told to remain calm and refrain from sharing unverified information in social media platforms that may cause panic.
Also, on the same day, Major Ericson Bulosan of the North Luzon Command clarified an alert memo being circulated in the internet is for “internal consumption of Nolcom only” which is subjected for verification by the intelligence unit.
In the memo, intelligence units of Nolcom were ordered to “heighten intelligence monitoring” in their area of responsibility amid the reports about establishments and churches being targeted for a terrorist attack.