DOJ, PNP, and NBI is now looking into the matter of fake news published online by media companies.
The fake appointment of the alleged new head of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) is being investigated by the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Philippine National Police (PNP), and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
No less than President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. authorized the probe into the people behind the spurious document, which apparently contained his forged signature.
“We don’t know how such a document could be used. It can cause not just confusion but further crimes. With this in mind, he ordered the investigation,” Business Mirror quoted Press Secretary Rose Beatrix Cruz-Angeles
She said that they are certain PNP and NBI have the forensic expertise to review and assess the document's authenticity.
A press story that Abraham G. Espejo Jr., a former dean of the College of Law at New Era University, will soon become the new Commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration was denied by Malacañang in a statement released on Monday.
The allegations by an unnamed source were published on the websites of Philstar.com and Manila Standard, and the leaked document was released last July 22, 2022, and contained Marcos’ signature.
As of 5:35 pm last Tuesday, both articles could no longer be accessed online.
The Presidential Management Staff, Office of the Executive Secretary, and the Office of the President all claimed that the appointment letter didn't exist.
Angeles urged the media companies to work with the authorities which are looking into the situation.
“We have the so-called table investigation. We will ask for affidavits from the respondents or from the resource persons or they can also be visited by our agents of NBI or PNP,” She said.
She also added that those responsible for the reports about the immigration appointment letter can be held accountable if it can be proven that they "conspired" to use the document even though they knew it was false information.
Forging the President's stamp, signature, or official seal is a crime under Article 161 of the Revised Penal Code, and the punishment is reclusion temporal, which corresponds to 12 to 20 years imprisonment.
Tags: #PNP, #DOJ, #NBI, #fake head of BI