ADDENDUM. Davao City Police Office City Director Senior Superintendent Alexander Tagum says social media should be added to the coverage of the ordinance penalizing the act of recruiting members, expressing support, and the manufacture, possession, and distribution of propaganda materials of the Isis-linked Maute group, saying that they have monitored several of these propaganda materials being shared in social media networks such as Facebook. Tagum made the comment in a committee hearing held at the Sangguniang Panlungsod on Wednesday, June 21. (Paulo C. Rizal/davaotoday.com)
DAVAO CITY, Philippines — Social media accounts of suspected terrorists will possibly be monitored once the city’s “anti-Isis” ordinance is passed.
Davao City Police Office City Director Senior Superintendent Alexander Tagum floated the inclusion of social media to the coverage of the ordinance that seeks to penalize “the act of recruiting members, professing support thereto, and the distribution of propaganda materials, and failure to report ISIS-related activities.”
In a joint committee hearing conducted by the Committee on Rules and the Committee of Public Peace and Safety on Wednesday, Tagum said they have monitored posts professing support to the ISIS-Maute group circulating on social media sites such as Facebook.
Councilor Bernard Al-ag, who chairs the Committee on Rules agreed to the suggestion, but noted that social media is a “world wide formation” while the ordinance being crafted would only cover Davao City.
Al-ag noted that the ordinance would only apply to social media posts proven to be created while in Davao City through the internet protocol address.
“Once your IP address will lead to you posting in Davao City, and you are a Dabawenyo, you are covered by this act. If you post a social media message post while not in Davao City, but you posted it in Metro Manila, you cannot be covered by this [ordinance]), he said.
The ordinance, which is set to be tackled by the city council on Tuesday next week, will impose a fine of P 5,000 and an imprisonment of one year — the maximum punishment allowed under the Local Government Code.
ISIS, an ultraviolent extremist terror group, is known for its graphic depictions of mutilations and execution of soldiers, journalists, and even international aid workers posted online in several social media platforms.
The actions of the Maute, an armed group pledging its alliance to ISIS that laid siege to the city of Marawi last month formed part of the justification of President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of Martial Law and the suspension of the privilege of the writ of habeas corpus in the whole Island of Mindanao.
The fighting in Marawi will reach its one month on June 23, with the army no longer setting deadlines for its completion, while claiming that only a few “pockets of resistance” remain in the city. (davaotoday.com)
