Students in UP Baguio Evacuated After the School Received Bomb Threats

Classes at the Baguio campus of the University of the Philippines were suspended on Wednesday after the school received bomb threats from a still unidentified person or persons. All students were also immediately evacuated. According to Baguio City police chief Senior Superintendent Rolando Miranda, they received information about the threats at about 9:30 in the morning.

According to reports, two officials of the university received the threats from an anonymous person via text messages. UP Baguio Chancellor Raymundo Rovillos and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs Wilfredo Arangui received the threats. The contents of the text messages were not divulged to the media but said messages indicated that a bomb was planted in one of the many buildings inside the campus.

The Baguio police office were immediately notified. Bomb experts were deployed in the area to search for said bomb while the policemen supervised the evacuation of the students.

UP Baguio students, faculty, staff gather at Japanese Garden on Gov. Pack Road ff bomb threat pic.twitter.com/kfAg2gZD8V
— Inquirer Baguio (@inquirer_baguio) August 27, 2014

JUST IN: Bomb threat reported at UP Baguio pic.twitter.com/V8QlnlwfqZ
— TBC ™ (@TheBromanceCrew) August 27, 2014

Students evacuated from UP Baguio due to bomb threat http://t.co/a7ofOngI3A pic.twitter.com/0s5wGgBGyn
— GMA News (@gmanews) August 27, 2014

Man Ties And Robs A Dentist In Baguio City Of 24,000 Pesos

A dentist in Baguio City was robbed inside his clinic which is located along Dagohoy Street. The Baguio City Police Office is currently investigating the robbery case. The victim has been identified as Dr. Ferrer Dao-ines Comtiag, 52 years old and a resident of barangay Wangal in La Trinidad, Benguet. Dr. Comtiag is originally from the town of Tadian in Mt. Province.

According to a police report, Comtiag was alone in his clinic in Dagohoy St. when a man who disguised himself as a patient entered. The still unidentified suspect then suddenly locked the door of the clinic, whipped out a handgun, and declared a hold-up. The victim wasn't able to get a clear look of the man's face as he was wearing a hat.

After pointing his gun to Dr. Comtiag, the suspect ordered him to lie face-down on the floor. He then took off with the clinic's collection amounting to 16,000 pesos plus a wristwatch worth 8,000 pesos for a total amount of 24,000 pesos.

Before the suspect fled the scene, he tied the victim's hands as well as stuff a piece of cloth into his mouth to prevent him from shouting for help. Dr. Comtiag was rescued when people from a nearby office noticed that the clinic was closed even though it was clinic hours.

Photo by Lynn Friedman via Flickr.

This is not the first reported crime in Baguio City concerning robberies held in dental clinics. It can be recalled that several of these crimes also happened last year. It's also common in other urban centers especially in Metro Manila wherein there's a syndicate whose main targets are dental clinics.

Note: An earlier version of this article identified the victim as a female. Dr. Comtiag is a male. Our apologies for the error.