Cebu City government investigates misuse of former social media page

CEBU, Philippines – The Cebu City government is working with police to track down the administrators of its former social media page which posted a video showing government personnel allegedly using illegal drugs.

Cebu City Legal Office chief, lawyer Jerone Castillo announced this in a press conference on Friday, July 21. The social media page being probed is the “Cebu Updates” Facebook page, formerly the “Cebu City Public Information Office” Facebook page.

“Expect that there will be cases filed against pretenders of an account that is supposedly owned by the City of Cebu,” Castillo said.

“There is already a directive to the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) to institute the necessary measures,” he added.

In the video, two uniformed personnel from the Office of the City Markets can be seen smoking with drug paraphernalia. It is unclear what drug the personnel were using.

The video dated Thursday, July 20, now has over 123,000 views, 2,200 reactions, and 921 comments as of this writing.

Resolved issue

Robert Barquilla, head of the city’s Market Operations Division (MOD), said he was surprised that the video was being spread as it was an issue that they had already resolved.

“Actually, dili na to update kay bahaw na to. Nakareceive na ko ato nga video last week sa May,” Barquila said.  (Actually, that wasn’t an update because it was old news. I received that video in the last week of May)

The MOD chief also denied that this happened inside the Market Office and said that it happened inside a guard house at the Warwick Barracks. 

According to Barquilla, the MOD held a meeting with the Cebu City Office for Substance Abuse Prevention (COSAP) in the first week of June to discuss the implementation of a surprise drug test.

On June 20, the city government conducted a drug test among 130 job-order employees. COSAP reported that five personnel were found positive, including the two in the video.

The MOD removed the personnel who tested positive.

Based on the page information, the Facebook page being investigated was created in May 2012. A check of posts on the page in 2012 showed multiple articles from the previous administration led by then-mayor Mike Rama, between 2010 and 2013.

The page has changed its name three times. In 2016, it was named “City of Cebu, Public Information Office” and in 2018, it reverted back to “Cebu City Public Information Office”.

The page turned to “Cebu Updates” on January 5, 2022. 

According to the heads of the Cebu City Public Information Office, the page was not turned over to them. The office is currently using the Cebu City • News & Information page for their day-to-day operations and city announcements. – Rappler.com