The Philippine National Police (PNP) reminded yesterday its personnel to observe extra precautions in handling sensitive intelligence reports especially those in connection with terrorism.
This, after a memorandum from the PNP Maritime Group addressed to operations managers of shipping lines ended up being uploaded in the social media and eventually caused panic to netizens.
The memorandum, dated June 2 this year and was signed by a police sergeant assigned to the PNP Maritime Group in Dapitan City, warned about seven vehicles purportedly carrying improvised explosive device.
The vehicles are black Toyota Hi-Lux with conduction sticker number TO4823, white Nissan Sentra (UER-452), black Toyota Land Cruiser (VIM 889), black Honda Civic (KDY 462), gray Toyota Vios (ZBM 340), black Isuzu DMax (PIJ 139), and black Toyota Innova (ZDT 395).
“Said vehicles are known to be carrying IED and are possibly going to exit on RoRo (Roll On, Roll Off) and port terminals,” the leaked memorandum read.
Chief Supt. Loy Morales, director of the Maritime Group, confirmed the authenticity of the memorandum and said it came from their office in Dapitan City.
He explained that the memorandum was supposed to be shared to operations officers of the shipping lines, both to alert them and encourage them to inform the police about the vehicles.
“We already asked the signatory of the memorandum and he said that the information about those vehicles came from his various sources,” said Morales.
But Morales was quick to clarify that the information remained unverified, saying they are still in the process of coordination with the Land Transportation Office about the ownership of the mentioned cars.
It was not immediately clear how the memorandum was able to find its way in the social media.
“The information is supposed to be for consumption of the intended parties. The intention is to share to the intended users as way of seeking assistance, that maybe they could help in the validation process and the security measures,” said Morales.
But the information was inadvertently leaked as some of the users unintentionally shared the information to other persons whom they trust. Morales said they have already identified the source of the leakage.
“They are in a small community, they are very close so in good faith he shared the information and he did not expect that it would be leaked to unintended recipient,” said Morales. (AARON B. RECUENCO)
