The Malaybalay City Police Station in Bukidnon has drawn the ire of vigilant netizens who called out its social media post which seemed to accuse activists of terrorism.
In a Facebook post on Wednesday (July 15), the Malaybalay City Police Station posted a photo of activists holding placards which reject the closure of broadcasting network ABS-CBN with a caption: “Malalaman mong sila ay para sa terorismo, papatulan lahat ng isyu basta laban sa gobyerno” (You will know if they are for terrorism if they ride on any issue as long as it is against the government.)
The post has since been deleted or made private since it is no longer seen in the Facebook page of the Malaybalay police as of Friday.
Police Brigadier General Bernard Banac, spokesperson of the Philippine National Police (PNP), acknowledged the controversial post of the Malabalay police and said the police leadership will investigate the matter.
"We will look into this," he said.
This was not the first time that local police stations were put in hot water after they red-tagged activists in social media -- a bold move which seem to defy the directive of no less than PNP Chief Police General Archie Gamboa to always adhere to social media protocols.
A month ago, a local police station in Caraga (Region 13) also received backlash after it posted “vicious” accusations against Bayan Muna Representative Carlos Zarate.
Zarate had said that the Butuan police station made social media posts which accused him of being lured by terrorist groups to attack the government.
The alarming trend of local police stations seemingly weaponizing the social media to stifle dissent became frequent after the enactment of the Anti-Terorrism Act of 2020 last July 3.
Defenders of the new measure have been reassuring the public that it will not be abused by law enforcers, among them the police, citing a provision in Section 4 which excludes advocacy, protest, dissent, stoppage of work, industrial or mass action, and other similar exercises of civil and political rights as among those considered as terrorist acts.
The new law shall take effect on Saturday (July 18). The implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of the law have yet to be finalized and made public.