‘New Year gunfire in Guam, not Philippines’

MANILA, Philippines – The video footage of a group of Ilocano-speaking men shown indiscriminately firing guns apparently on New Year’s Eve reportedly happened in Guam and not in the Philippines, a police official said yesterday.

The video, uploaded on social media, went viral.

Philippine National Police chief Director General Ricardo Marquez said the incident was in Guam, which is outside the jurisdiction of the PNP.

“The ACG (Anti-Cybercrime Group) continues to check who were the men who fired their guns indiscriminately during the holidays and we found out that it happened in Guam,” said Marquez.

ACG spokesman Supt. Jay Guillermo said the ACG investigated at least four videos and photos that were uploaded in the Facebook account of Edgardo Quinit on Jan. 3.

Guillermo said the account was deactivated on Sunday while the ACG was gathering details about the account on Sunday morning. The account was reactivated the following day.

Guillermo added that computer forensic experts gathered that the Quinit family has been residing in Guam based on the Internet protocol (IP) address of the uploaded videos and the series of license plates of the cars seen in the video.

He said the PNP might coordinate with the International Police (Interpol) in Guam and are ready to share the information they gathered during the investigation.

“We have to coordinate with the Interpol to trace their whereabouts in Guam. We will provide them with the information that we have so far,” said Guillermo.

Guillermo said the PNP has the obligation to assist its counterpart in addressing the issue on indiscriminate firing.

“The video went viral in social media, and it means worldwide. This is embarrassing because they are Filipinos and they are the ones doing something illegal in another country,” said Guillermo.

Aside from Quinit, a certain Diane Bughaw Ataop also uploaded photos on her Facebook account.

Ataop posted seven photos of her firing a short firearm with the shoutout “welcome 2016 with ninong” with a happy face icon. Ataop later changed her name to Asiang Bughaw, and claimed she merely used blanks.

On the other hand, Quinit’s Facebook account contained the video of a man brandishing several firearms and even assisting a young girl, supposedly his daughter, to fire the gun in the air.

Several other videos of people brandishing firearms and firing guns were also shared on Facebook. With Janvic Mateo