CEBU CITY – Charges were formally filed on Tuesday against an eye doctor who was accused of spreading false information about coronavirus disease (COVID-19).
Hours before Josephil Brian Consuelo, an optometrist residing in Barangay Lahug, Cebu City, was charged, a 21-year-old man was arrested in Danao City, northern Cebu for posting a fake kidnapping incident on his Facebook page.
The Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit-Central Visayas (RACU 7) sued Consuelo for allegedly violating the Revised Penal Code which prohibits unlawful use of means of publication and unlawful utterance in relation to the Cybercrime Act of 2012.
Consuelo allegedly posted on his Facebook account last February 11 that a foreigner died in a Mandaue City hospital due to COVID-19.
RACU-7 Director Marlo Castillo said they had to send investigators to the hospital after the post caused public alarm.
Consuelo remains at large and will be asked to submit his counter-affidavit as part of the preliminary investigation, said Castillo.
Castillo advised the public to avoid spreading false information and be more responsible in using social media.
Around 9 a.m. on Tuesday, operatives of the Danao City Police arrested a 21-year-old man over a Facebook post last December 2, 2019.
In his Facebook post, the man said that a group of persons aboard a white van was roaming around to abduct children.
When the Danao police conducted an investigation, the man admitted that he just made up the story.
The man was charged for violating Presidential Decree 90, otherwise known as Declaring Unlawful Rumor-Mongering and Spreading False Information in relation to Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.
Presiding Judge Ma. Josefa C. Pineza-Ramos of Regional Trial Court Branch 90 in Danao City issued an arrest warrant against the man, whose identity was withheld by the police for security purposes.
The court has set a bail of P 60,000 for the man’s temporary liberty. (Calvin D. Cordova)
