The Philippine National Police in Negros Oriental held a simulated exercise on bomb threat scenario at the geothermal power plant in Valencia town Wednesday.
The simulated exercise, conducted at around 11:25 a.m. at the geothermal power plant in Barangay Malaunay, Valencia town, is part of the inspection of the PNP Directorate for Police Operations-Visayas headed by Police Director Orlando Domingo Ualata of the Public Safety Forces, said OIC provincial police director Sr. Supt. Harris Fama.
The scenario that was agreed upon during a table top exercise and conference the day before was a “bombing” of a steam pipeline of the geothermal power plants of the Energy Development Corp.
Participants during the simulation were security officers from the geothermal plant, the 79th IB of the Philippine Army, the Valencia police station, members of the PNP’s Provincial Public Safety Company-Explosives Ordnance/K9 unit, the Special Weapons and Tactics team, Scene of Crime Operatives, Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office staff officers, the local Bureau of Fire Protection, Post Blast Investigator and representatives from the DIPO-Visayas who acted as observers and critics, Fama said.
Meanwhile, at sundown of the same day, the police received a call for assistance after a suspicious-looking bag believed abandoned was found at the Dumaguete-Sibulan airport.
Sr. Supt. Fama disclosed this was not part of the SIMEX and was an actual police callout.
Around 5 o’clock in the afternoon of Wednesday, a SWAT EOD-K9 team deployed to the airport to inspect the bag but found that it only contained clothes and no components for a bomb or improvised explosive devices, Fama said. (PNA)
