St. John’s Institute (SJI) in Bacolod City is on heightened security alert following threats made on the lives of its teachers and students on social media, Lt. Jovito Pastrana, Police Station 2 officer-in-charge, said Monday, December 12.
Posts on the Facebook page named “Huaming Par” on Saturday and Monday said that the school has a choice to fire one of its staff or its teachers and innocent students will be riddled with bullets fired by snipers.
The shooting will start when it is least expected and innocent lives will be lost, one post said.
Only one thing will calm the devil, for the staff member to be fired or for him to resign, it added.
Examinations set on Friday were postponed after the school receive a bomb threat that turned out to be a hoax, Pastrana said.
However, the exams were held at SJI on Monday and will continue on Tuesday, he said.
Pastrana said he dispatched policemen, including intelligence personnel in plainclothes, to secure St. John’s Institute as early as 5:30 a.m. Monday until 12:30 p.m. when the students went home.
Two police patrol vehicles were also dispatched to the area, he added.
The police will continue securing the school as long as the threat remains, he said.
They are also seeking the help of the Police Regional Anti- Cybercrime Unit to trace who is making the threats, Pastrana said.
They are investigating a possible conflict within the school that could have triggered the threats, he added.
Abraham Ganzon Jr., security and safety consultant of the school, said they are not dismissing the threat as a prank.
Any threat is taken seriously, he said.
Ganzon said he is submitting their evidence to the Police Regional Anti- Cybercrime Unit so it can be determined who is making the threats.
However, last night the “Huaming Par” Facebook page could not be located.
“We will remain on heightened alert,” said Ganzon, who was appointed by the school to head its security on Saturday.
They have not ruled out the possibility that the threats could be coming from a disgruntled person within the school, although they could have also come from persons from outside, he said.*