San Fernando Council to seek NBI’s help on tracing online kill lists’ accounts

Some San Fernando town residents attend the town council session to inform the town officials about the social media postings of a kill list of town officials from dummy accounts. The report prompted the town council to turn to the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas for help. | Tonee Despojo

CEBU CITY, Philippines—The Sangguniang Bayan of San Fernando town, 38.2 kilometers south of Cebu City, will seek the help of the National Bureau of Investigation in Central Visayas (NBI-7) to trace dummy accounts that allegedly spread a “kill list” involving some local officials and town residents in social media sites.

Members of senior citizens, purok federation leaders, youth and differently abled persons’ groups trooped to the regular session of the town council on Monday morning, March 4, to express their concern of the kill lists that are circulating online through alleged dummy accounts and pages.

“We cannot help but sympathize to these people nga nahadlok sila. Ubay-ubay gyud sa lungsod ang nakuyawan tungod aning mga hulga sa Facebook and kining mga dummy accounts nga nagpost-post aning mga lista kuno sa tokhangunon, maka-question pod ta nganong naa silay knowledge ani,” Acting Vice Mayor Philip Jude Medalla told CDN Digital in a phone interview.

Medalla said the residents who attended their session submitted attachments showing screenshots of Facebook posts which purportedly bore the names of the officials and personalities in San Fernando that are subject for “tokhang,” an anti-drug campaign of the administration which is now being associated to the killings of those suspected to be involved in drugs.

Read more: Police to file charges against suspects in Reluya ambush

In the past two months, San Fernando town lost three councilors and one barangay captain in bloody encounters with unidentified gunmen. One of which was Mayor Lakambini Reluya’s husband and Association of Barangay Councils (ABC) President Ricardo “Nonoy” Reluya Jr., who died in an ambush last January 22.

Councilor Alfonso Donaire IV, who chaired the Committee on Public Safety, was also killed by unidentified perpetrators in Zamboanga del Sur last February 23.

Read more:  Zamboanga del Sur cops looking for killers of San Fernando Councilor Donaire

Medalla said that they would ask the NBI-7 to investigate and trace the identity of the users of the dummy accounts and the administrator of the Facebook group page “Mga Estorya sa Politika sa San Fernando” where the alleged kill lists and other threats were allegedly posted.

“As soon as the excerpts of the session earlier will be available, the [SB] secretariat shall personally deliver the [documents] to NBI-7,” Medalla said.

Sangguniang Kabataan Federation President Riyadh Christopher Oacan also recommended to furnish a copy of the attachments submitted by the residents to Facebook in order to help in tracing the identity of the dummy accounts./dbs