Thursday, January 31, 2008 Officials challenge owner of website: Identify yourself
A CONGRESSMAN challenged operators of a website “for whistle-blowers” and “advocates of good governance” to reveal themselves.
Rep. Pablo John Garcia (Cebu, 3rd district) said the Among Reklamo website at among.reklamo.ph tends to associate the Cebu International Convention Center with graft and corruption.
“Clearly, that is the creation of people who are and have always been critics of the CICC,” said Garcia, who served as Capitol consultant before winning a House seat.
“Sites like this have very limited credibility because site owners and administrators are hiding behind the anonymity of the Internet. People will take this with a grain of salt,” he said.
The Among Reklamo website is hosted under the reklamo.ph domain. The domain, according to registry records, was registered by the Consumer Complaints Center, Inc. with address at the 15th floor of the LPL Building on Leviste Street in Makati City.
The main Reklamo website, which was last updated in December 2006, was created to gather consumer complaints. The Among Reklamo website also shares the same web hosting space with Ampoy.reklamo.ph, a website campaigning for US citizenship for Filipinos born before July 4, 1946.
The Among Reklamo website says it is a page “reserved for ‘whistle blowers’ and other advocates for good governance.” As of 9 p.m. last night, it only contained links to documents and stories on the CICC.
Viewers of the site can read the 12-page complaint filed by WT Construction.
Also posted was the order issued by the court last Jan. 25 when Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Ester Veloso denied the move by WT seeking a writ of preliminary attachment against the properties, deposits and monies of the province.
Lawyer Rory Jon Sepulveda, Capitol consultant on information, said the owners’ intention in putting up the site might be good but this was diluted when they posted the WT complaint.
Sepulveda said the complaint never alleged that there was corruption in the building of the CICC.
“Off-tangent ang WT complaint,” he said.
The posting of the complaint, Sepulveda said, is clear proof that the site is a propaganda against the province.
“If my suspicions are right, kadtong mga kulang sa pansin ang utok ani (those who crave attention are behind this). But we are not worried because Cebuanos are intelligent people. However to preclude kay basin naa pa gyuy motoo nila, we will follow the governor who always said ‘dili sulti and pabuhaton kon dili ang buhat maoy pasultihon’,” Sepulveda said. (KNT)
