Confessional box hit by bomb threat

Even priests are not spared from bomb hoaxes.

A Catholic priest quickly left the confession box when a man who had entered the confessional threatened to ignite the dynamite he was holding and blow up the Mount Carmel Church in New Manila, Quezon City early Saturday evening.

“It’s a matter of life and death. I had to get out of the confession box to ensure the safety of the churchgoers,” Fr. Henry Praveendesoza told The STAR in an interview at the parish office yesterday morning.

Praveendesoza said the man, who spoke broken English, had entered the confession room on Friday and asked forgiveness for his earlier plan to blow up the church. He said he pitied the children who might be killed in the explosion.

On Saturday evening, the man returned and wanted to confess again.

However, when Praveendesoza locked the confession box, the man started to threaten him again and said he would blow up the church with dynamite.

“When I asked ‘where is the bomb’, he held up a plastic container and told me ‘here is the bomb’. I was terrified. I ran away to contact the guard,” the priest said.

Praveendesoza stressed that the real intention of the man in getting into the confession box was to air his bomb threat and not to confess his sins.

“The sacrament of confession was not administered because his intention was to threaten me,” he said.

When the security guards arrived, the man fled the church premises.

Police Chief Inspector Rodolfo Miranda, Galas Station commander who rushed to the church, said it was the second bomb threat they received in the past two weeks.

Senior Superintendent Magtanggol Gatdula, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, has ordered the Criminal Investigation Unit to probe the identity of the suspect.

Brother Benedict Piangco, who briefly talked to the suspect before he entered the confession box Saturday evening, provided a cartographic sketch. The suspect was described as between 40 to 45 years of age, 5’ 8” in height and wore a white shirt.

A review of the surveillance camera installed at the church compound showed that the unidentified man left a plastic bag outside the church. Two other men were seen retrieving the plastic bag an hour after the suspect left.

Security has been tightened in the church premises.