By Jeffrey Damicog
Overseas Workers Welfare Administration (OWWA) Deputy Administrator Margaux “Mocha” Uson has been summoned by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for allegedly creating and posting fake news.
Deputy Executive Director of the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration Mocha Uson(Czar Dancel / MANILA BULLETIN)
“She is being investigated for fake news,” confirmed NBI Deputy Director and spokesperson Ferdinand Lavin on Wednesday (May 13). “She is required to appear on May 18.”
Lavin said the investigation is based on a complaint filed against Uson and is being conducted by the NBI’s Cyber Crime Division (NBI-CCD) under its chief Victor Lorenzo.
Lavin also said Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra has a directive to the NBI to investigate fake news.
“There was an order of SOJ (Secretary of Justice Guevarra) before for the NBI to investigate fake news,” he said. “We included her in the investigation re posting of PPEs.”
The NBI was referring to her April social media photos of personal protective equipment (PPE) which she claimed were bought by the Department of Health (DOH) when these in fact were bought by the SM Foundation.
In the subpoena dated April 29 that was sent to Uson, the OWWA official was directed to appear before the NBI-CCD at 10 a.m. on May 18 “to give evidence in a certain investigation” and warned that her failure to do so will be “under penalty of law."
The subpoena noted that the investigation is being conducted based on a complaint filed by Angelo Landagan and Shaira Agting, who accused Uson of violating Republic Act No. 10175, the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.