Palace: Viral cop facing inciting to sedition raps violated laws

The police officer charged with inciting to sedition over his social media posts in response to the arrest of former president Rodrigo Duterte clearly violated the law, Palace Press Office and Undersecretary Claire Castro said.

Castro was referring to the case of Patrolman Francis Steve Tallion Fontillas, who has defended Duterte regarding allegations of crimes against humanity over drug war killings and said that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. does not get the same respect from the people as compared to Duterte.

“Kahit sino naman po sigurong pangulo ay mabibigla po sa tinuran ng sinasabing official uniformed personnel. Alam po natin na kapag uniformed personnel, dapat po impartial at non-partisan. So, doon pa lamang po ay may violation na po siya,” Castro said.

(Any president will probably be caught off guard with what the police officer uniformed personnel said. We all know that uniformed personnel should be impartial and non-partisan. On that alone, he already committed a violation.)

“So, kung ano po iyong nararapat na...kung mayroon man pong pagdidisiplina o parusa, ay siguro dapat lang pong ibigay kung naaayon po sa batas,” Castro added.

(So whatever is right — if there should be discipline or penalty in accordance with the law — then that should be given.)

In a statement released on Tuesday, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) filed the inciting to sedition under Article 142 of the Revised Penal Code in relation to the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012 complaint against Fontillas with the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office.

“This development follows Fontillas’ unauthorized and politically charged social media posts in response to reports of former President's arrest,” the PNP said.

In his posts on Facebook after Duterte's arrest, Fontillas threatened the International Criminal Court and Interpol that they will face a war should they lay a hand on Duterte. A netizen advised him to resign first from the police force before defending Duterte, but Fontillas said there is no need to do so, adding that their power can be used to overthrow the government if there are enough grounds to do so.

Castro then reiterated the Palace’s earlier statement that it will not tolerate seditious acts such as calls to bring down the Marcos administration.

“Kapag may mga ganito po at talaga pong nananawagan ng panggugulo, hindi po talaga ito palalagpasin ng Palasyo,” Castro added.

(If there are incidents like this and there is a call for chaos, the Palace won’t let them get away with it.)

The Revised Penal Code defines sedition as an act of persons who rise publicly and tumultuously in order to attain by force any of the following objects:

• to prevent the promulgation or execution of any law or the holding of any popular election;
• to prevent the Insular Government, or any provincial or municipal government or any public officer thereof from freely exercising its or his functions, or prevent the execution of any administrative order;
• to inflict any act of hate or revenge upon the person or property of any public officer or employee;
• to commit, for any political or social end, any act of hate or revenge against private persons or any social class; and
• to despoil, for any political or social end, any person, municipality or province, or the Insular Government or the Government of the United States, of all its property or any part thereof.

Fontillas has maintained that he was just exercising his right to free speech and expression as provided by the Constitution. —KG, GMA Integrated News