The Department of Justice will mobilize the National Bureau of Investigation to investigate those who may be responsible for misinformation if it is intended to create public unrest or to sabotage the economy, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra warned on Tuesday.
Guevarra says he is not inclined, at the moment, to tap the resources of the NBI to trace the origin of the fake news that the government would impose a holiday lockdown.
The false information spread in the social media claimed that the government would place the country under an enhanced community quarantine from Dec. 23 to Jan. 3 as a preventive measure against the possible increase of the coronavirus 2019 cases.
But Guevarra said that, at the moment, he would leave it to the regular communication channels available to the government to clear up the rumors being spread in the social media.
“For as long as the government could quash all of this false information through the usual communication channels, I will reserve the resources of the NBI for more urgent and critical investigations,” he said.
“However, if there are signs that misinformation about the COVID-19 situation are deliberate and coordinated to create public unrest or sabotage the economy, I will immediately deploy the NBI to intervene and find out who are perpetrating this malicious misinformation.”
Nonetheless, he appealed to the public not to disseminate the fake news.
“Regarding the so-called Christmas lockdown that was obviously fake news, I advise netizens to just wait for statements from official sources rather than pass the rumor around. The more the rumor circulates, the faster it assumes the illusion of truth,” Guevarra said.
From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the NBI was instructed to conduct case buildups and file appropriate charges against those behind the spread of false information.
In this particular instance of a holiday lockdown, Guevarra said, he was leaving the NBI out of it.
He would prefer to use the NBI for more urgent and critical investigations.