A radio blocktimer was charged before the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office yesterday for allegedly causing public panic with loud warnings of a coming tsunami in barangay Pasil, Cebu City, last Monday.
Police accused Danilo “Danny” Cogtas of causing public disturbance in violation of Article 153 of the Revised Penal Code.
Two motorcycle-for-hire drivers executed a joint affidavit identifying Cogtas as the man they saw driving a motorcycle in Pasil and shouting that a tsuanami was coming.
Cogtas was also overheard by witnesses, including one from a local TV network, boasting about what he did, said Chief Insp. Romeo Santander, intelligence chief of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO).
Cogtas, a resident of Talisay City , was one of two men accused of spreading false rumors that a tsunami was about to hit Cebu following Monday’s 6.9-magnitude earthquake.
Santander said the police are waiting for other witnesses to testify against Ermita barangay councilor Domingo Ando, who was identified as the second man before a formal complaint is filed.
Both Cogtas and Ando showed up at the Cebu City police headquarters to deny the allegations last Thursday.
Big ID card
Cogtas was given 10 days to submit his counter-affidavit.
In their affidavit, witnesses Roldan Espina and Ryan Pedrosa said they rode to barangay Pasil on their motorcycles to verify reports that a tsunami had hit the shoreline in downtown Cebu City.
“When we arrived somewhere near the vicinity of Pasil fishport, we noticed a surge of people running away from the place, some dragging along with them little children,” the two witnesses said.
They said they saw a man on a motorcycle screaming that a tsunami was coming.
Espina and Pedrosa said the man wore a big ID card around his neck and a dark sleeveless vest “like the ones worn by media people.”
The two witnesses then returned to barangay Lahug where they work as motorcycle-for-hire drivers.
When the two men saw Cogtas’ photo in a tabloid, they identified him as the shouting man.
Calm down
Cogtas told police that his actions were just miusunderstood. He said he was just on the phone with his son advising him to head to higher ground in Talisay City after hearing claims that that a tsunami was heading to Cebu City.
Cogtas, a member of the group Tabang Sugbo Organisasyon based in Talisay City, said he made the phone calls after he brought a secretary and her children to the group’s headquarters in C. Padilla Street, Cebu City.
He said he cried when he was unable to contact his son the third time, thinking that the tsunami had hit their area.
Cogtas said some people may have overheard him say something about the tsunami and panicked.
He said it was only minutes later when the secretary called up a friend in Pasil that he learned that there was no tsunami.
Ando, chairman of barangay Pasil’s disaster preparedness team, said he told parents to fetch their children in school because classes were suspended.
Ando claimed that he also tried to calm down the parents because of tsunami rumors and checked the water level in Pasil.
Angry
Police said it was Espina and Pedrosa who drove to Pasil to check the water level there.
Cogtas denied reports that he boasted about causing a panic with scare reports about a coming tsunami.
An employee of the Cebu Catholic TV Network (CCTN) said Cogtas made the boast while talking to staff member before hosting a TV program.
“That’s why I got angry with him because I am from Pasil and my parents are there and we were about to transfer to a place near the river,” said the employee who requested anonymity.
Cogtas said he went to CCTN to co-host a TV program with Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez and talked with staff about what he witnessed during the tsunami scare last Tuesday evening.
Grave consequences
If he had any intention of scaring people, Cogtas said he wouldn’t have cried and called his son to evacuate to higher ground.
At the Capitol, Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia called on broadcasters to exercise prudence in airing news reports.
She said what Cogtas did was irresponsible and dangerous.
“There could have been a stampede and lives would have been lost. That was a very clear example of how very, very grave the consequences could be if broadcasters do not treat their role in a responsible manner,” she said.
Garcia also said the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) should have issued a follow-up advisory and taken into consideration the physical geography of Cebu.
“We are not located in open sea. As far as I know Cebu is surrounded by islands that face the open sea,” she said. With Correspondents Chito Aragon and Carmel Loise Matus