When posts about the supposed resignation of police officers in protest of the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte went viral on social media, the Philippine National Police (PNP) immediately conducted a background check and found out that they were done to sow intrigue and mislead the public.
PNP spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo described those social media posts as the biggest fake news as the information they obtained revealed that there was no such thing.
For instance, Fajardo said the policewoman who used to be assigned to the Presidential Security Group (PSG) and was reported to have resigned after the arrest of Durterte turned out to have quit her job in 2024.
“We conducted a background check and we found out that she resigned in 2024 and migrated to Australia with her husband,” said Fajardo.
“Another one was a man who claimed to be a member of the PSG. We coordinated with the PSG and we found out that he was long discharged from the service after going AWOL (Absent Without Official Leave),” she added.
Fajardo said the PSG is yet to decide on whether or not it would pursue criminal charges against him.
Meanwhile, there was also a vlogger who has been calling all those in the uniformed service, particularly policemen and soldiers, to revolt in protest of Duterte's arrest.
Netizens later criticized him after he was later exposed to be a police trainee who was dismissed from the service for his involvement in the death of a soldier who was shot dead in a Covid-19 checkpoint in 2020.
‘These are proof that there’s an intention to sow intrigue, to spread fake news so we should not easily believe them,” said Fajardo.
“Currently, the morale of the police is high. There’s no reason for our policemen to revolt,” she added.