‘STRICTLY no red-tagging please.’
Philippine National Police chief, General Camilo Pancratius P. Cascolan has assured members of the House of Representatives their full commitment to strictly observe prescribed guidelines and procedures in all their public engagements particularly thru social networking sites and other social media platforms like Facebook.
“I assured our Honorable congressmen that disciplinary sanctions shall be imposed upon any PNP member who willfully violate the rules and regulations embodied in the PNP Social Media Policy, specifically Memorandum Circular No. 2020-034 dated 20 May 2020 that prescribe the Guidelines and Procedures on Social Media Content, Post and Engagement Utilizing Official Social Media Accounts and Individual Accounts of PNP Personnel,” Cascolan told Camp Crame newsmen.
The PNP chief met with leaders of the Lower House including House Majority Leader, Leyte (2nd District) Rep. Ferdinand Martin Romualdez to discuss their proposed 2021 budget.
“I had the opportunity to inform Congress of PNP actions in response to the much-publicized takedown of some Facebook accounts purportedly associated with the PNP. I told Congress that we have communicated with Facebook seeking a list of purported PNP-linked accounts that were shut down due to alleged “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” he added.
According to the PNP chief, they have received a reply from Rob Abrams, the Trust and Safety Manager for Asia Pacific of Facebook Singapore acknowledging their correspondence with implied assurance of availability of the requested information upon compliance of certain internal requisites.
“We have yet to hear from Facebook again since then but we are confident of their favorable response to our request. I also informed Congress that as far the PNP is concerned, all 1,585 social media pages and networking sites (as of October 4, 2020) officially owned and maintained by PNP units and offices remain up and operational, although many of which are not actively engaging with netizens,” he said.
“Nonetheless, all these sites are monitored by the National Headquarters and PNP units maintaining these social networking sites are constantly reminded to strictly observe PNP Rules on social media use, and cautioned against libelous posts and content that may trigger cyber-bullying, and those that infringe on civil rights that protect data privacy, intellectual property and confidentiality of information,” the PNP chief added.
PNP spokesman, Colonel Ysmael S. Yu has denied that the purged fake accounts were connected to the police force and maintained that the PNP is being guided by proper etiquette when it comes to the use of social media.
“We particularly don’t authorize red-tagging. We also don’t tolerate arrogance by our men each time they use our official website,” said Cascolan.
