PNP, NBI warn vs ‘fake news;’ village chair in hot water

Philippine National Police chief Gen. Archie Gamboa on Friday issued a warning against people spreading what he called “fake news” of crimes being committed, people getting sick, or chaos erupting in neighborhoods while the entire Luzon is under a monthlong quarantine to stem the spread of the new coronavirus.

In a parallel move, National Bureau of Investigation officer in charge Eric Distor said the agency’s cybercrime division and digital forensic division had begun to look deeper into “reports that sow chaos and will lead to unrest and anarchy in the country.”

But before the PNP or the NBI could pinpoint any culprit, a barangay chair in Marikina City is facing charges for allegedly spreading false information about an infection in his community, according to the city mayor.

On Thursday, Barangay Tumana chair Ziffred Ancheta reported in a livestream feed on Facebook that a resident in the village had contracted the new coronavirus disease COVID-19. The resident whom Ancheta alluded to worked as a security guard in Greenhills Mall, San Juan City.

But according to Alberto Herrera of the Marikina City Health Office, the security guard was classified only as a person under investigation (PUI)—not yet a confirmed COVID-19 case.Under the Data Privacy Act, only the Department of Health (DOH) can disclose the details of a patient’s condition, he added.

“This is in direct violation of protocol set forth by the Department of Health [with regards to] informing the public about COVID cases, thereby causing fear, panic and trauma to the residents of Barangay Tumana,” said Marikina’s Rescue 161 chief Dave David in his letter to the city’s Department of the Interior and Local Government.

‘Please verify’

Health Assistant Secretary Maria Rosario Vergeire made a similar appeal to the public to first check with the DOH before believing rumors of COVID-19 patients supposedly “escaping” hospital confinement.

“Please verify with us if reports of escaped patients are true. Because it is really scaring our community,” Vergeire said in response to reports that a Quezon City resident who tested positive for the disease had escaped from the hospital and faked his address.

In Marikina, Mayor Marcelino Teodoro said Ancheta would be charged with unlawful means of publication and unlawful utterances, punishable under a Revised Penal Code provision relating to the anticybercrime law.

“I am urging everyone to be responsible when posting on social media, especially about COVID-19,” said Teodoro. “This is not the time for panic … [W]e must come together as one family [to] help each other.”

In a subsequent Facebook post, Ancheta explained that he might have just used the “wrong language” when he referred to the PUI as a “positive case.”

PNP to make an example

“As a leader, I wouldn’t want a member of our community to contract COVID-19. It was an honest mistake by using the wrong language. There’s no positive case [in the barangay] and there’s no lockdown here,” he said.

The past few days have seen social media posts being shared about looting and other crimes allegedly being committed beyond the reach of authorities enforcing the quarantine.

“The reports yesterday were all fake news,” PNP chief Gen. Archie Gamboa said in a Malacanang press briefing on Friday.

“You can be punished by disseminating, posting fake news,’’ Gamboa said. “My directive to the ACG (Anti-Cybercrime Group) and the different regional directors was to make an example out of [the perpetrators], so that the public will see that we can arrest and charge those who post fake news on the Internet.”

Gamboa said the ACG has begun tracing the sources of social media posts about alleged burglary incidents in McKinley Hill, Taguig City, and in Binondo, Manila; and alleged rioting in San Andres, Manila.

Another viral Facebook post claimed that a group of disgruntled pedicab drivers in Las Piñas City was planning to loot a grocery store after losing their source of income because of the quarantine.

In a radio interview, Brig. Gen. Bernard Banac said that “what used to be just gossip and small talk among drinking buddies and neighbors are now shared through (internet) chat groups. The danger here is that they are usually captured through screenshots and passed on to other groups without proper context. It causes panic among the people.”

“The reality is that over the past five days, since community quarantine was enforced in Metro Manila and recently enhanced over the rest of Luzon, crime incidents have significantly decreased,” Banac said. —MARIEJO S. RAMOS, JULIE M. AURELIO, MELVIN GASCON AND NIKKA G. VALENZUELA