CHC, MHS receive bomb threats

Three bomb threat incidents happened in two government establishments on Saipan last Friday and Saturday.

Operations at the Commonwealth Healthcare Center and Marianas High School were disrupted after receiving the threats.

Teams from the Department of Public Safety, Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and Department of Fire and Emergency Medical Services were dispatched to both locations to assess both threats.

According to Public Health and Hospital Preparedness director Warren Villagomez, they received multiple calls from the same source Friday morning.

“The first call came in at about 10:20am. We received calls four times going to the hospital’s number,” Villagomez said.

“We activated the code, notified the CEO, and its code black and we pretty much, in the incident command, laid out our plan of approach in coordination with DPS,” he added.

Code black means there is a bomb threat made to the hospital.

“We also told our staff to remain calm. The staff knows what to do, they’re coming down and they have followed the protocols of it, basically,” chief executive officer Esther Muna said.

“Once we got the call, we wanted to make sure that the staff are safe, that the patients are safe. We did ask the staff to take a look at, if there’s anything suspicious, to take a look at that,” she added.

Some of the hospital staff, patients, and family members were asked to go out of the hospital. The gates to the hospital were also guarded and police surrounded the building.

“We had the non-clinical team to go out but we did ask them to go back in just to check again for anything suspicious,” Muna said, “We closed the clinic because we don’t know when we’ll be opening it and we asked the staff to try to reschedule.”

“Everything’s continuing to operate but at the same time, we’re also looking around,” she added.

Dogs from the K-9 unit of the Commonwealth Ports Authority swept the area.

“With the assistance of CPA bomb [-sniffing] dogs, we swept the top of the hospital, from south to north, and down to our warehouse,” Villagomez said.

“As much as we can say that it’s probably a hoax, we wanted to make sure, so I asked that they just go ahead and do the sweep because we are 24 hours,” Muna said.

An all-clear was made at the hospital past 2pm when no bomb was found.

Muna said she is disappointed, sad, and angry with the threat made to CHC.

“It’s disappointing when you make a threat like this…to play a trick like that, basically we have to do a lockdown,” Muna said, “Why would you do that to the health system? It’s really unnecessary. Don’t play tricks on health because people that really need it will get delayed.”

Twin threats

Threats were made to MHS also on Friday, as the hospital incident was being addressed, and again on Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, MHS teachers sent the students to two designated places in the campus as part of the school’s standing operating procedures when such threat is received.

Some students said the threat caused minor disruption of classes because at the time they were actually going out of the classrooms for a pep rally.

Police officers scoured the school premises and did not find any bomb.

There was no information as to who received the threat.

On Saturday, students in MHS campus were again disrupted in their activities as another bomb threat was made.

According to a student, they were auditioning for the play “Hairspray” when they were notified of the threat.

Investigations ongoing

Homeland Security and Emergency Management deputy special assistant Gerald Deleon Guerrero told Saipan Tribune on Friday that detectives are already doing their work trying to trace the calls and that investigations are already in the works.

He added that they will also seek the help of telecommunications company, IT&E, to assist in the matter even if it takes a subpoena to do so.

“This is a serious thing because it’s a felony to be making these prank calls and the thing is, you’re calling a very critical facility which is the hospital. They should understand that this is the only hospital in the island and you are really, really, impacting the stability of the hospital,” Deleon Guerrero said.

“To whoever is doing these prank calls, please think because it’s a crime,” he added.

Saipan Tribune tried to get information from the Department of Public Safety’s information office about the threats at MHS and the Commonwealth Health Center, but DPS did not reply.

These incidents follow a trend that started in Guam during the beginning of the year where multiple bomb threats in different establishments across the island were made for several days.

Gov. Ralph DLG Torres and Lt. Gov. Victor Hocog released a public statement on Friday after the threats were resolved.

“The Department of Public Safety has taken steps in investigating both incidents and has identified and is looking into persons of interest,” their statement said.

“We commend DPS together with the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management and the DFEMS for their diligent response to these situations and for doing their part in ensuring the safety of the community. We also want to remind the general public to be vigilant in cases such as these and to remain calm and if able to, assist authorities in maintaining peace and order the next time emergencies arise,” it added.