Sun Star Super Balita photographer Allan Tangcawan (left), accompanied by his editor in chief Michelle So, arrives in Police Regional Office (PRO-7) after being tagged by the police as a ‘person of interest’ in relation to the Facebook page Cebu Flash Report, which carried a fake story of a bomb found in Lapu-Lapu City.
CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA
EMPHASIZING the seriousness of the offense, Police Regional Office Director, Chief Supt. Noli Taliño vowed that the individuals behind the Facebook page that circulated a bomb scare online will be unmasked and brought to court.
Taliño said charges must be filed against the administrators of Facebook page Cebu Flash Report (CFR) for a post claiming that a bomb was found near a stall in Barangay Basak, Lapu-Lapu City.
No bomb was found when police rushed to the area after the supposed bomb threat circulated online.
“Tutuluyan natin sila (We will really go after them). We are taking this case seriously. The filing of charges should serve as a warning that social media users should be responsible. They must avoid posting something that will create panic and alarm,” said Taliño.
The Facebook page was deactivated last Wednesday but another page named “Cebu Flash Report V2” has been created. It remained unclear if the same persons, who handled the old page, are still the ones running the new page.
Taliño said even if the Facebook page has been deactivated, the police will continue to investigate.
“Damage has been done,” said Taliño.
“Persons of interest” have been invited for police questioning, among them Alan Tangcawan, photojournalist of Sunstar Superbalita-Cebu.
“A person of interest means you can be a suspect or you can be a witness. The invitation is to help shed light on the incident,” said Taliño.
Tangcawan denied involvement in the bomb hoax when he appeared before the office of the Regional Intelligence Division (RID) yesterday afternoon.
“My conscience is clear. I cannot afford to destroy the company I work for in the past seven years. I cannot afford to destroy the image of the whole Cebu media,” said Tangcawan.
During the meeting with Senior Supt. Jonathan Cabal, chief of RID, Tangcawan denied being an administrator of the CFR page. He also denied knowing the CFR administrators.
Tangcawan said he suspected that he was dragged into the issue after some of his photos, which were published on Superbalita, were repeatedly shared by the CFR Facebook page.
He, however, admitted that sometime in 2016, he saw a notification in his personal Facebook account that he was assigned as one of the administrators of CFR.
Tangcawan said he removed himself as the page’s administrator.
Cabal clarified that despite the denial , Tangcawan isn’t off the hook yet.
“He is still one of the persons of interest,” said Cabal.
Another personality, a worker of the Lapu-Lapu City Hall, is set to appear before the police today after being identified as one of the CFR page administrators.
Chief Insp. Leo Dofiles, head of the regional anti-cybercrime unit, said resolving the issue will be a long process.
“We have to identify the administrators first, and if there are several administrators, the one who allowed the posting of the post will be the one who will be held liable,” said Dofiles.
Dofiles said they have already coordinated with Facebook in their bid to solve the issue.