Laguna Rep. Dan Fernandez. SCREENGRAB FROM FACEBOOK
MANILA, Philippines — A lawmaker has urged the public to scrutinize information about crime incidents posted on social media first before sharing these to avoid unnecessary fear-mongering.
During the hearing of the House of Representatives committee on public order and safety, committee chair and Sta. Rosa City Rep. Dan Fernandez said that the credibility of the Philippine National Police (PNP) is taking a toll due to the posts about crime on the internet — only to find out that the incident had either been already solved or did not happen recently.
Fernandez noted that crime incidence actually dropped compared to recent years, despite numerous posts on social media about several criminal activities.
“Some of our public servant and other agencies of the government and other people were saying na ‘oh lumalala yung krimen, ano ginagawa ng PNP’ (crime rate is going up, what is the PNP doing). They are accusing something right away against the PNP. But it was proven, I read also the news article about what you said after a week that you have found out that old video,” the lawmaker said.
“Yung nai-upload nung concerned citizen (was an old video) and that’s a reason why we have to go back to the volume of crimes. Kasi nga mako-compare mo, ito bang nangyayari is isolated? Makikita mo naman yung crime volume or index natin bumababa from 10 years ago and today,” he added.
(The video uploaded by the concerned citizen was an old video and that’s the reason why we have to go back to the volume of crimes. Because if you compare, are these events isolated? You can see the country’s crime volume or index go down from 10 years ago to today.)
“And that’s a reason why I wanted to make a plea to our citizen to be wary also of those videos that you wanted to upload,” he further said.
Fernandez did not single out a particular incident, but there have been posts on social media about the supposed growing incidence of crime in the country. However, PNP chief Gen. Rodolfo Azurin Jr. — who was also in the committee hearing — recently complained about fake news spreading on social media sites.
According to Azurin, there has been a surge of sensational crime reporting on social media, including some that have been solved already by the police.
READ: PNP chief Azurin denies ‘crime hike’: There’s only ‘crime hype’ on social media
There were also reports, particularly from the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO), where the supposed victim was found to have just made up a story about her being abducted — as witnesses whom she claimed helped her get away from kidnappers did not recount anything weird happening.
Fernandez also stressed that while some netizens are really eager to have the crime solved by the police, some are doing it for the limelight — which further damages the PNP.
“Kasi (Because) there are two personalities eh, one is if you wanted to upload it to a concerned agency to know it because you wanted to solve it. But others wanted for self glorification. They wanted to have so many views to the detriment of the organization itself,” he said.
“That’s the reason why I wanted this to be checked as well and to us, our people, to be responsible enough. The organization and the PNP is doing its job but unfortunately with this kind of uploading of past crimes that were committed and being uploaded and a lot of people are commenting is damaging our organization,” he added. — with reports from Lyka Farillon, INQUIRER.net trainee