4 nabbed in crackdown vs phone signal jammers

Four people were arrested in Grace Park, Caloocan City, for allegedly selling cell phone signal jammers on Friday, a day after police and election officials warned that these electronic devices could be used to disrupt next month’s computerized elections.

The arrested persons yielded 14 units of the device in a sting operation on Zollner International Merchandising store on 4th Avenue, according to the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

The DILG identified the suspects as Zollner owner Giovanni Penaloza Dee Tan and his employees Matthew Mercado, Rommel Ogo and Betsayda Bueda.

In a statement, the agency said the Anti-Cybercrime Group of the Philippine National Police led by Supt. Bernard Yang acted on a tip from concerned citizens who said the suspects were selling the signal jammers online.

One of the informants was able to contact the suspects through a number posted on sulit.com.ph.

The police were joined by representatives of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) in the operation, wherein a poseur buyer bought four jammers from Zollner for P34,000.

The four suspects were charged with violation of the Tariff and Customs Act and the e-Commerce Law.

In a complaint filed in the Department of Justice, ACG intelligence section head Chief Insp. Jay Danao Guillermo said the gadgets would “allegedly be used/or were intended to be used in the forthcoming national elections in the country.”

Guillermo also noted that the store was selling them without an NTC permit.

The PNP, however, did not give additional proof that the devices were to be used on May 13.

During inquest proceedings presided over by DOJ Prosecution Attorney Stephanie Maderazo late Friday, the suspects, who were accompanied by a lawyer, waived their right to file their counter affidavits and agreed to be brought to court as soon as possible.

In a press conference on Thursday, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas, Commission on Elections Chair Sixto Brillantes and NTC Commissioner Gamaliel Cordoba urged the public to report persons or establishments selling signal jammers.

Brillantes explained that signal jammers could be used to delay the transmission of the election results and undermine their credibility.