Student arrested for bomb threats

An 18-year-old student was arrested in Tondo, Manila yesterday morning in connection with the two bomb threats at the National Teachers College (NTC).

Lezlie Ann Orteza, an education major at the NTC, was arrested in her house after the Manila Police District traced her number with the help of the National Telecommunications Commission, according to MPD public information chief Superintendent Carlo Magno Manuel.

Orteza is Sangguniang Kabataan chair of Barangay 259, Zone 23.

The MPD had been tracking Orteza’s number after the NTC received two bomb threats on Sept. 8 and 24 from two different cell phone numbers. The numbers reportedly belong to Orteza, sources said.

Members of the MPD’s bomb squad rushed to the NTC on Monday after the school received another bomb threat.

Interviewed at her detention cell, Orteza said she was angry on the day she texted the school administration because a lot of students were creating noise and she was not able to review.

“It was very toxic. I just thought I couldn’t take the exam,” she said.

Meanwhile, the MPD is hunting down at least two students in connection with bomb threats at the Mapua Institute of Technology on Sept. 18 and the University of Santo Tomas, Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila, and Far Eastern University the next day.

The same number sent the bomb threats to the schools, claiming the New People’s Army planted several bombs in the school premises and will detonate them in the afternoon.

The text messages added that similar bomb explosions will rock the Lyceum of the Philippines University and the Colegio de San Juan de Letran.