DUMAGUETE CITY – The chief of the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Dumaguete District Office in Dumaguete City mulls the filing of a formal complaint against a netizen who posted “personal affronts” against her on social media.
“I will consider that,” said LTO-Dumaguete District Office chief Alberta Janine F. Lawas, after her friend Ricky Andaya Soler advised her on Facebook to consider pursuing a case.
“Para matagam (to teach a lesson), file a case so that others will not post recklessly on FB (Facebook), Soler said.
Lawas, the LTO-Dumaguete Office, and the provincial Highway Patrol Group (HPG) were the subjects of serious and personal posts on Facebook that hit not only their public offices but their personal and private lives as well.
The supposed culprit, a certain Franco Manaban of Purok Colonan, Barangay Daro, Dumaguete City, issued on Tuesday a public apology that was posted on Facebook by media practitioners, “for maligning” Lawas, the LTO, and the HPG in the former’s posts made on sd3Sept. 26.
“That it is with regret that I made the irresponsible and malicious comments against Mrs. Lawas, the LTO and HPG which caused injury to her person and the two institutions herein stated,” the apology letter read.
Manaban issued the apology after three meetings to settle the issue with Lawas at the police station in the past two weeks.
Lawas came across two posts on the Facebook account of radio reporter Boy Pilonggo, that accused her and the HPG of being in cahoots in sharing whatever income was derived from traffic roadside operations.
The posts were made by Happy, the wife of Manaban, who was summoned to the police station after Lawas managed to take screenshots of the posts before these were taken down.
During the first meeting among the parties concerned, Mrs. Manaban denied having posted the comments, saying that she lost her tablet about a year ago.
But when asked to produce evidence of the supposed lost tablet, such as a police blotter report, or even a notification of social media of the same, she failed to present any.
The following weekend, they met again and this time, Mrs. Manaban passed on the blame to her husband, who she said used her cellular phone and Facebook account for the posts in question.
Franco Manaban, together with his wife, appeared at the police station the following day and met with Lawas.
Apart from the allegation that Lawas, the LTO and HPG were making money from roadside operations and sharing it among them, another post (in Cebuano) also suggested that Lawas and the HPG ought to be shot because they were in connivance.
Lawas said she is seriously considering filing appropriate charges in court to warn the public to be careful and responsible with their social media posts.
She lamented that some people attack the private life of a person and make unfounded accusations that could destroy a person’s integrity and even their family. (Mary Judaline Partlow/PNA)
