Phone caller IDs for Cebu City offices urged vs bomb threats

CEBU - The rash of bombings in other parts of the country and the series of bomb threats here have prompted local officials to widen the security blanket.

Plans are afoot to install caller IDs on telephones of government offices and police stations to trace callers of bomb threats.

The identification device, being promoted by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., displays the number of the phone the caller is using.

Cebu City Mayor Alvin Garcia said the procurement of the caller ID device, which costs P850, can be charged to the funds the city gets from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. (Pagcor).

He said this expenditure qualifies under the guidelines set by Pagcor for the disbursement of funds.

Garcia said he will urge councilor Rogelio Osmeña, who heads the city council's committee on police, fire and penology, to sponsor a resolution requiring all public offices to install caller IDs on their phones.

The councilor's brother, Vice Mayor Renato Osmeña, who heads the Police Coordinating Advisory Council, also urged business establishments to adopt additional security measures.

The vice mayor said all bomb threats must be taken seriously. "It (caller ID) will at least be a deterrent because we can easily trace the phone number of the caller," he said of Garcia's proposal.

At the Palace of Justice, Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Galicano Arriesgado ordered all secondary doors of the building closed. The courts received two bomb threats this week.

Only the main door of the building will remain open so security personnel can closely monitor people entering the place. The building has a total of six doors.

Some city prosecutors, however, said the move may turn out to be a hazard in the end. Fiscal Jesus Feliciano said exit points will now be blocked in cases of fires and earthquakes.

Feliciano's concern was shared by fiscal Tolomeo Dinoy who said that while there is a need to step up security, the door leading to the city prosecutor's office should stay open.

Arriesgado requested for additional security personnel from the Supreme Court which, in turn, directed him to close all secondary doors of the building.

Shopping malls in Cebu City also tightened their security and revived the use of metal detectors in checking people carrying bags and packages.