AFP chief vows to look into deleted Facebook accounts linked to military
MANILA, Philippines — Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) chief of staff Lt. Gen. Gilbert Gapay said on Wednesday that he will be looking into the report about Facebook accounts traced to the country’s military forces which have been taken down.
“Tamang tama. Very timely. I will be meeting the President of Facebook Philippines. This is one of the things that we will discuss. But rest assured that the AFP does not tolerate uploading fake news and fictitious social media accounts,” Gapay said during a joint Philippine National Police and AFP press briefing at Camp Crame, Quezon City, reacting to the removal of 100 Facebook accounts traced to the police and the military.
“But still baka personal accounts din ang nasabi dito. Just the same, we will be looking into the matter,” he added.
(But still, maybe these are personal accounts. Just the same, we will be looking into the matter.)
Gapay, nonetheless, said the AFP will continue to remind their personnel to observe etiquette on their social media posts.
Gapay also confirmed that no official AFP Facebook accounts were deleted by the social media giant.
Article continues after this advertisement“I would like to inform everyone that all official Facebook accounts of the armed forces are up and running. Hindi sila nasama sa natakedown. (They are not included in the deleted accounts.),” he said.
Article continues after this advertisementMeanwhile, AFP spokesman Major General Edgard Arevalo said the meeting between military officials and Facebook Philippines was a previous agreement that had been postponed and was not about the recent report on fake accounts.
“Its (Facebook meeting) been long arranged and has been postponed twice due to issues of schedule. Matutuloy this PM. We will take the opportunity to ask for details na rin about that report. The meeting this PM was FB’s initiative,” Arevalo said in a statement to reporters.
On Tuesday, Facebook announced that the closed accounts linked to the military posted criticisms against the political opposition, activism, and communism.
The accounts were most active when discussions about the anti-terrorism law started in 2019 when it was still a bill.
