Company apologizes to PNP for warning about thrill killers

The Cebu-based firm that issued the e-mail warning about a gang of thrill killers roaming the streets at night and preying on motorists has apologized for the uproar it has caused the public.

Celestica Philippines senior manager Jeoffrey Escala has sent, via e-mail, a communication to the Philippine National Police apologizing over the apparent indiscretion of issuing such an alarming but false notice to its employees.

Escala clarified however that the notice was intended actually to the firm’s employees. “When we came to know about the potential risk, we issued the memo with pure good intention of highlighting the situation to our employees,” he said in his e-mail.

“We did not plan to escalate this warning beyond our employees, and it is unfortunate that the memo ended up in mass distribution beyond our company” Escala added.

Celestica Philippines is a manufacturing plant based at the Mactan Export Processing Zone in Lapu-Lapu City.

The e-mail warning, circulated in Metro Manila and other parts of the country last week, was initially believed to have come from the PNP.

It caused concern among the public after the PNP Public Information Office in Camp Crame was swamped with e-mails from people seeking for validation of the purported police warning.

PNP spokesman, Chief Supt. Samuel Pagdilao Jr., had by then refuted the perception that the warning came from the police.

“This is definitely disinformation.  We never issued such a warning and there is no such threat to motorists,” he said.

The false warning emanated from e-mail messages, circulating on the Internet, contained an attached file copy of a memorandum issued on October 8, 2007 by the Cebu-based Celestica Philippines to its employees.

The memorandum claimed that a street gang called “Bloods” drive around on Friday and Saturday nights attacking victims as part of the gang’s initiation rites for new members. It then instructed Celestica employees to “share this information with all the drivers in your family.”

“If you are driving after dark and see an oncoming car with no headlights on, DO NOT FLASH YOUR LIGHTS AT THEM!  This is a common “Bloods” member “initiation game” that goes like this: The new gang member under initiation drives along with no headlights and the first car to flash their headlights at him is now his “target”.  He is required to turn around and chase the vehicle and stop that car then shoot and kill every individual in the vehicle in order to complete his initiation requirements,” the e-mail warning reads.

A text version of the tale, apparently derived from the e-mail warning, was later circulated among mobile telephone subscribers encouraging people to pass on the “information” to others.

Pagdilao said the PNP has not received any report of an incident as what was described in the supposed warning.

A very similar warning was circulated in the United States several years ago, and this has been dismissed by state and federal authorities as an “urban legend,” according to Pagdilao.

Pagdilao urged the public to be circumspect in handling rumors and unverified information, especially those coming from unknown sources.  — Gregg M. Rubio/RAE