RP jailbird causes embassy shutdown

RP jailbird causes embassy shutdown

THE PHILIPPINES: An inmate calling from inside a jail cell was behind a telephone threat that shut down the U.S. Embassy in the Philippines last week, a Filipino police official said on Tuesday.

The inmate has no known affiliations with any political organization and it was unclear why the call was made, or how the caller got hold of a mobile telephone inside the suburban Manila prison, said Vidal Querol, deputy commander of the city police.

He did not identify the caller or say what action was taken against the person.

The U.S. mission shut down most of its public services on Dec. 6 and Dec. 7 after receiving a "plausible threat to the security" of the mission. Philippine police bomb squads searched the embassy but found no explosives.

"I understand an inmate called (the U.S. Embassy) using his cell phone. It's a prank," Querol said.

The inmate was not among a number of suspected Muslim militants held in the facility, Querol added.

U.S. spokesman Matt Lussenhop refused to comment on Querol's account but stressed that "at the time, we felt it was a plausible threat so we closed the embassy".

Earlier this year, Philippine authorities said they had thwarted a plot by the Islamic militant group Jamaah Islamiyah to detonate a 1,000-kilogram truck bomb outside the U.S. Embassy. Several Filipino members of the group have since been arrested. -- AFP