The Joint Task Force on Security in Negros Oriental has denied reports that a Muslim man who is an alleged member of the terrorist Maute Group was arrested recently in the town of San Jose.
Task Force executive director Bimbo Miraflor in an interview on Monday reiterated his statement released this weekend that government authorities here have verified this particular information and found it to be false.
Miraflor pointed to the information circulating on social media, passed on through text messaging and private messages that said the man who was arrested had disclosed plans of terrorist operations to be carried out in Negros.
“The police on duty has told the Joint Task Force that no Muslim has been apprehended for violation or arrested for any crime for the last five days in San Jose,” Miraflor said in a statement released earlier on social media.
“More so, no information has been taken from anyone by the San Jose Police Station regarding the arrested alleged Maute member that an impending terrorist plan will be undertaken by the extremists Maute group here in Negros”, he added.
Miraflor was referring to the information being passed around on Facebook that had even mentioned the name of Gen. Bato, apparently referring to the Philippine National Police Chief Director Gen. Ronaldo dela Rosa, being here in the Province.
Gen. dela Rosa last week had breezed in to Dumaguete for an overnight visit with relatives, and visited the PNP headquarters. According to Sr. Supt. Henry Biñas, it was an unannounced visit.
The JTFS Executive Director lambasted the source of the information, saying that whoever had the guts to spread it “had not thought of it responsibly”.
Miraflor said the information had been “intentionally disseminated to cause undue public panic”.
Describing it as “fake news”, he called on the public to be “prudent and responsible in posting sensitive (information) in social media platforms”.
He cautioned the public against soliciting answers and opinions from friends in social media, especially on national security, but instead go directly to the authorities for verification.
“As of yet, Negros Oriental is generally peaceful. Let it be said, however, that we should not be easy and complacent. Let us remain on guard and super vigilant within our respective neighborhoods and communities”, Miraflor reiterated.
The JTFS’s statement came in the wake of social media posts that said an alleged member of the Maute Group was arrested in San Jose.
It also came at a time when the military and the police had deployed armored tanks and trucks with troops to conduct checkpoints at strategic locations as part of pro-active measures to prevent any untoward incidents here amid the terror threat in nearby Mindanao.
The Task Force executive director reiterated that Negros Oriental remains safe with ongoing and relentless proactive measures of the provincial government, the JTFS, the Armed Forces of the Philippines, the PNP, the Coast Guard, the Philippine Navy and the Philippine Army on land and at sea.
“Ultimately, with the active cooperation and participation of the community, we would be able to preserve that kind of environment where we can freely move and do our individual daily routines without fear and intimidation”, said Miraflor, who spoke by authority of JTFS Chair Gov. Roel Degamo. (Judy Flores Partlow/PNA)
