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Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana on Monday defended the social media posts made against ABS-CBN Corp. by a government task force whose sole mandate is to crush armed communist insurgency in the country.
Lorenzana claimed that ABS-CBN, which was forced to halt its broadcast operations last week after the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) did not follow through on its commitment to issue a provisional authority to allow broadcast operations, is “trying to demonize the government. ”
He also said the erroneous social media posts, which have been debunked, are “explaining the truth.”
“The ABS-CBN are on a full court press trying to demonize the government for what happened to them. The [National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTFELCAC)] is an agency of the government. I see nothing wrong with explaining the truth to the Filipino people. It is our duty to counter these propaganda, ”Lorenzana alleged.
The National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict (NTFELCAC), in a series of Facebook posts, accused ABS-CBN of franchise violations and blamed the network for the expiration of its broadcast permit.
The posts were shared by the official accounts of the Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) and the Philippine Information Agency-National Capital Region (PIA-NCR) before Malacanang’s communications team disowned them.
In a statement, Communications Sec. Martin Andanar said the “resharing” of the NTFELCAC posts “was done without the usual vetting process” of the Presidential Communications Operations Office which he heads.
“That being said, the posted content is not in any way an official statement or an opinion of the PCOO. The issue regarding ABS-CBN Corporation’s network franchise remains within the purview of Congress, “he said.
Presidential spokesman Sec. Harry Roque denied as much.
“We wish to clarify that the above posts did not come from the Office of the Presidential Spokesperson and the NTF Stratcomms which is headed by the OPS. Hence, not the official statement of our Office, ”Roque said.
The posts have since been deleted from the PCOO and PIA-NCR accounts.
President Rodrigo Duterte signed Executive Order 70 in December 2018 creating the NTFELCAC, which seeks a “whole of nation approach” in addressing communist insurgency in the country.
According to the EO, a “whole-of-nation approach prioritizes the delivery of basic services and social development packages by the government in conflict-ridden areas, facilitates societal inclusivity, and ensures active participation of all sectors of the society in the pursuit of the country’s peace agenda. “
Duterte chairs the NTFELCAC, with National Security Adviser Hermogenes Esperon as vice-chairman.
The NTFELCAC comprises Cabinet officials and heads of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP), with the PCOO as its secretary.
AFP, PNP social media directives
AFP chief of staff General Felimon Santos Jr. earlier ordered the Army, Navy, and Air Force’s military and civilian personnel, as well as their dependents, to “maintain proper behavior in their online and social media activities.”
“All AFP military, civilian human resource, to include dependents, are directed to practice caution in publicizing personal opinion especially when engaging in social media activities,” Santos’ said.
Santos cited an AFP policy on social media use, first published in 2016, which called for “proper etiquette and a high standard of conduct and behavior in any and all online interaction or activity.”
The AFP policy bars soldiers and its civilian support staff from posting or sharing materials that violate the law, or any “information that harms or puts other people in embarrassing, inconvenient, and or humiliating positions, or puts the AFP or any of its units in bad light. “
The PNP on Monday also reminded all its police and non-uniformed personnel to observe “cyber etiquette” when using social media platforms.
The PNP said that in accordance with its existing policy on social networking sites, “all personnel must observe proper decorum in all public engagements including social media platforms, chatgroups and private sites.”
“Likewise, all comments and opinions of individual personnel, associations and sectoral groups on matters that are not related to the organization’s activities are hereby disowned by the PNP as unofficial and unauthorized,” the PNP said. – with a report from Chiara Zambrano, ABS-CBN News
news.abs-cbn.com is the official news website of ABS-CBN Corp.
NTFELCAC, ABS-CBN franchise, Delfin Lorenzana, PNP, AFP. red-tagging
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