For threatening comment on FB, cop faces charges
A POLICEMAN is now facing complaints after he posted a threatening comment against the creator of a Facebook page campaigning against President-elect Rodrigo Duterte’s plan to give a hero’s burial to dictator Ferdinand Marcos.
On Monday, Zena Bernardo, creator of the Facebook group “Never Again to Marcos Family and Their Cronies,” filed criminal and administrative complaints against PO1 Juvic Gultiano Pedotim of the Manila Police District’s Lawton Police Community Precinct at the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
Bernardo had filed an administrative complaint against Pedotim with the PNP-Internal Affairs Service, and met with PNP-Anti-Cybercrime Group director Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar to seek guidance on what possible criminal complaint to file.
Eleazar recommended that Pedotim be investigated for grave threats under Section 6 of the Cybercrime Prevention Act which states that crimes under the Revised Penal Code, if committed through information and communications technology, would merit a penalty one degree higher.
Eleazar expressed surprise at Pedotim’s actions, pointing out that during the election period, the PNP administration had repeatedly instructed policemen to remain nonpartisan and “neutral” on political matters, online and offline.
Bernardo, over the weekend, shared on Facebook a poster for a forum on Duterte’s decision to have Marcos buried at Libingan ng mga Bayani. It earned a comment from Pedotim which went: “Zena Bernardo Bernardo’s corpse… will also be hanged!”
“What I want to be the takeaway point from this whole exercise is that we have to stop all the bashing. You have to make this society a safer place. I mean, we have freedom of expression. We should be able to express our opinion, we should be able to make our stand without being trolled or bashed, or have the safety of our families threatened by people who don’t understand what they are even saying, or don’t have a basis for what they are saying,” Bernardo said.
