THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it initiated an investigation on an alleged Japanese man who sent bomb threats to government offices.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that he has ordered a thorough investigation on the identity of the said Japanese.
On Monday, several government agencies received a bomb threat via email from a certain Takahiro Karasawa.
In the email, Karasawa claimed that bombs will rock major Philippine government agencies on February 12, at around 3:34 PM.
No such incident was recorded. However, Tansingco said that they will be working with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) to determine whether the suspect is indeed in the country.
“We will also be verifying if this is his real identity, or if he is a prankster using a fictitious name,” he added.
Tansingco warned that they would immediately be able to implement hold orders, blacklist orders, or arrest warrants issued against the suspect.
“The national government is not taking this lightly,” said Tansingco. “Any security threat shall be met with the harshest penalties of the law,” he added.
Tansingco said that a quick check of their database revealed at least four namesakes, who are all not in the country.
The BI said that it will forward results of their verification to the NBI and DOJ to assist in the investigation.
It was reported that someone using the same name also made similar threats to other countries a few years ago.
