BACOLOD CITY, Negros Occidental, Philippines – Like a line in Maroon 5’s song “memories bring back memories bring back you” only that it brought back memories of “ECQ” last year that some people thought was the new quarantine level here.
And caused confusion, even panic for some who thought that this city of more than half a million people had been placed once more under a more restrictive Enhanced Community Quarantine after Facebook users circulated the year-old graphics card of dyHB-RMN.
The station, an affiliate of the Radio Mindanao Network, airs on 747khz on the AM band and owns Facebook pages on which it posts news and updates.
RMN-Bacolod station manager Jeony Bigay told DNX the reposting of the graphics card could have been “deliberate,” used by certain quarters to “mislead people amid the rise in cases” and even as the government undertakes calculated measures to control the rise.
The card, posted 26 March 2020 on the dyHB Tatak RMN page, contains details of vehicles that are not allowed to travel and public places that will be closed.
It had the original kicker text of “wala na biyahe sa maabot nga Marso 30, 2020 sa pagpatuman sang Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ).”
“There will be no more trips on March 30, 2020 with the start of the Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ),” it says in the Hiligaynon language.
This was posted, however, by some Facebook users and made to appear as a recent post dated yesterday, 26 March 2021.
Bigay does not know who reposted it first and made it appear that RMN-Bacolod reported an ECQ was in effect.
This city is still under the less restrictive Modified General Community Quarantine (MGCQ) that Mayor Evelio Leonardia declared through Executive Order No. 73 that first took effect on 1 December and had been extended since then.
Bigay asked netizens to be concerned with details in reading the news as he lamented that people sometimes think someone with a Facebook account is already a journalist.
