Woman faces raps for bomb joke at LRT station

MANILA, Philippines— A 23-year-old woman was arrested on Wednesday morning for cracking a bomb joke at a Light Rail Transit-1 station.

Initial reports of the Pasay police said the woman, identified as Maribeth Florentino, was having her bag inspected by security guard Erlina Unabia at the LRT-1 Baclaran station when she joked that it contained an explosive.

Unabia then arrested Florentino, who was later on determined to be a resident of Sta. Quiteria, Caloocan City.

She was arrested for violating Presidential Decree 1727 or the Malicious Dissemination of False Information Concerning Bombs.

In October 1980, President Ferdinand Marcos signed PD 1727, informally called the “Anti-Bomb Joke Law,” which declared the malicious dissemination of false information of any threat concerning bombs or explosives as unlawful.

Section 2 of the presidential decree states “that any offender will be arrested and will not be entitled to bail pending trial by military courts that would have jurisdiction over such cases.”

The Philippines no longer has military courts for cases involving civilians, but the prohibition against bomb jokes is still in place.

In September 2018, pro-Duterte blogger Drew Olivar was allowed to hold a press conference with the police after posting on Facebook discouraging people from joining a rally to mark the 1972 declaration of martial law. He said in Filipino in the post that there were rumors that there would be a bombing like what happened at Plaza Miranda in 1971.

Olivar was reportedly charged for making the bomb 'joke', but the there have been no further updates on the case.

Florentino was turned over to the custody of the Baclaran Police Community Precinct.

Authorities said Florentino was brought to Pasay General Hospital for medical examination and transferred to Pasay police station for the filing of charges. —Rosette Adel