Female vlogger from Oslob, Cebu nabbed by NBI for spreading fake news

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A 30-year-old female vlogger from Oslob town in southern Cebu was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation Central Visayas Regional Office (NBI CEVRO) agents on Thursday evening, March 20, for allegedly spreading fake news.

Lawyer Renan Agustus Oliva, NBI-7 regional director, presented and identified the vlogger as Wendelyn Magalso of Oslob town in southern Cebu during a press conference today, March 21, with the media, which included  a zoom interview with NBI Director Judge Jaime Santiago.

Oliva said that the vlogger captioned a post on social media about illegal drugs being now being legal, where she cited President Marcos and that she pitied the innocent people.

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The vlogger also allegedly placed a message of Mr. Marcos on her post, which had a different content.

“Legal na daw ang druga grabe ka nanam Marcos ngayon harapin mo lahat nang hamon kong makakabalik ka pa pagka looy sa mga inosente,” Oliva said that this is the caption of the vlogger in her post.

She then posted a message of the President, whose topic was not related to the caption of the vlogger.

Oliva said that they were doing a cyber patroling and came upon the vlogger’s post and they also had a TV 5 complaint that one of its March 14 posts was edited and a sentence was added to the content, saying that “Gumawa tayo ng batas na gawing legal ang druga sa ating bansa.”

Edited posts circulating online

Then on March 19, TV 5 news supervisor informed the NBI-7 that one of their posts, which was edited, was circulating online.

According to the NBI-7, further investigation and also in their cyber patroling, the post of vlogger Magalso popped up.

Oliva said that when it was learned that the vlogger was from Cebu, they then acted on it and arrested Magalso.

She did it for money

After her arrest, the vlogger told the NBI agents that she only did that for money as she could only earn money through views from her posts.

She also apologized to President Marcos for her post.

Magalso was detained at NBI CEVRO and she would be charged with Illegal Use of Publication in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.

If convicted of the crime, the penalty will be imprisonment of 6 months and 1 day to six years and a fine of P40,000 to P200,000. | Futch Anthony Inso