A Cebu City-based writer and entrepreneur named Maria Victoria Beltran was arrested yesterday morning after being accused of spreading fake news by Mayor Edgar Labella.
Beltran was taken into police custody after writing on her Facebook account that all residents of Sitio Zapatera in the village of Luz have been infected with the coronavirus. The area, the home of 9,000 people, has been put on lockdown late last week after 82 of its residents were confirmed to have COVID-19, ABS-CBN News reports.
“9,000+ new cases (All from Zapatera) of COVID-19 in Cebu City in one day. We are now the epicenter in the whole Solar System,” wrote Beltran in her post.
This drew the ire of Mayor Labella, who shared her post on his own Facebook account. He described her statement as nothing but “fake news” and threatened the writer that she will be “thrown in prison.”
Hours after Labella’s public rebuke of the writer, Beltran took down her post, and said in a statement that she had no intention to “spread confusion and fear” by what she wrote. The statement added that Republic Act No. 11469, or the Bayanihan to Heal as One Act, prosecutes fake news purveyors only when they “promote chaos, anarchy, fear, or confusion”.
“We decry Mr. Mayor’s threat to involve the PNP Cybercrime Unit, and his reference to a warrantless arrest, which we believe is not proper under the circumstances. The characterization of the post as a criminal act does not make it a criminal act. There is no crime to speak of therefore,” Beltran’s statement said.
“The threat of the mayor of a warrantless arrest sends a chilling effect to everyone else on social media, including those who are not happy with the way he had handled this crisis on behalf of the people of Cebu City who had given him mandate to lead,” it added.
Despite taking down her post, however, Beltran was arrested hours later in the village of Lahug, also in Cebu City.
Vincent Isles, Beltran’s lawyer, told The Philippine Daily Inquirer that she will file criminal and administrative cases against those who were responsible for her arrest. In a statement he released yesterday, he also slammed the Cebu City government for having his client arrested.
“We reiterate our earlier statement that this is such a petty case, and there are other more pressing matters that should be prioritized by this administration. It is absurd how much resources of the State was expended in arresting Ms. Beltran, and how much more would be used up to drag her to inquest proceedings and to trial, should the public prosecution office, in its discretion, believe that she should be held for trial,” Isles said.
Meanwhile, non-profit organization Concerned Artists of the Philippines decried Beltran’s arrest for what they said was just a “satirical Facebook post.”
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