Cebu City Mayor Tommy Osmeña slammed a Facebook page for causing panic with a fake claim that a vintage bomb found in the city has a “40% chance of exploding” during extraction.
Osmeña hit the page “Our Cebu” for spreading “fake news” after a World War II vintage bomb was found in Cebu IT Park and was scheduled for extraction on December 19.
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“No, there is NOT a 40% chance of the vintage bomb exploding. There is not even a 0.4% chance,” Osmeña wrote on Facebook.
“This is not the first time a WWII bomb has been found in Cebu. Vintage bombs are still found on a semi-regular basis. Never have any of them exploded unless detonated by another bomb,” he added.
He scored the Facebook page admins for “perpetuating panic” with their baseless claims.
“The admins of this page should be ashamed of themselves for perpetuating panic with fake news,” Osmeña said.
This was the mayor’s reaction to “Our Cebu” page’s post, a part of which read: “40% chance of exploding while ga extract. Bomb extraction will start 1am until 6am.”
In the comments section, Osmeña provided a link to a Philippine Star article about another vintage bomb that was also found in IT Park in 2010. It was safely extracted and was set to be transferred to the Central Command’s facility in Iloilo, where it would be detonated.
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In another response to one of the commenters on his post, he explained that there was no crisis and once again slammed the Facebook page for “sensationalizing” the situation by claiming that the bomb has a 40 percent chance of exploding. He added that while the bomb extraction was postponed when it was supposed to be done from 3am to 6am on December 19, another extraction was scheduled.
“There is no crisis. Realize that this is not the first time an old bomb has been found in I.T. Park and this will not be the last time. The only difference is now some idiot FB page decided to sensationalize the situation by saying there is a 40% chance it will explode. I am not downplaying this situation, but it is my job to reassure people that it is under control. This has been done many times before,” Osmeña wrote.
Another netizen emphasized that there is still reason to be concerned no matter how small the percentage of the bomb exploding. But the Cebu City mayor also explained that there was due warning and that what the Facebook page was increase the risk for potentially causing panic.
“The public WAS warned. The point is that saying there is a 40% chance of detonation is beyond reckless. There is a far greater chance of people dying from a panic-induced stampede than there is from an old bomb exploding,” Osmeña said.
He also agreed with one commenter who said that proper warning was given to the security teams of the buildings that might be affected to ensure information dissemination in a “calm and clear manner.”
A vintage bomb was found in a construction site at IT Park in Brgy. Apas, Cebu City.
Cebu IT Park administrator Jennifer Paglinawan released a memo dated December 18 to call for the emergency evacuation of all occupants in at least seven buildings at IT Park, while stating that “the public, within a 1-kilometer radius is advised to be on a heightened alert while the ordinance is being extracted.”
The memo was addressed to property managers, building administrators, admin office, and construction-in-charge of all IT Park locators.
The memo contained a photo of the US-owned vintage bomb from WWII. It was described to weigh 1,000 pounds with a diameter of 47.8 cm and length of 170 cm.
A copy of the said memo was posted on Facebook and immediately went viral.
Sources: ( inquirer.net )
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