A threat of a bomb hidden in a roast pig diverted a plane flying from the southern Philippines to Manila on Wednesday, a day after explosives in three mobile phones were defused at a shopping mall in the south.
No bomb was found on the Cebu Pacific Airlines plane.
The domestic flight with 78 passengers was ordered to land in Cebu City in the central Philippines after taking off from Davao on the troubled island of Mindanao, which is home to several groups of Muslim rebels.
The threat to the country's second-largest airline and the bombs found at the mall came two weeks after blasts killed 13 people on February 14 in Manila, General Santos and Davao.
"Somebody sent a text message that there was a bomb hidden in a 'lechon' (roast pig) that was on the plane," said Arturo Evangelista, head of airport security in Cebu.
The Cebu Pacific plane was allowed to continue its flight to Manila after the security check. One of the passengers, who checked in the "lechon" as luggage, was questioned and released.
Cebu Pacific, the smaller rival of Philippine Airlines, is mainly a domestic airline but flies to South Korea, Singapore and Hong Kong. It also runs charter flights to China.
