3 vloggers charged for kidnap prank

MANILA, Philippines — Three vloggers learned the hard way not to stage dangerous pranks for the sake of generating views from the public.

The content creators behind Tukomi, which has 4.21 million subscribers on YouTube and 4.21 million followers on Facebook, are facing charges of alarm and scandal before the Las Pinas City prosecutor’s office for a kidnapping prank that went wrong.

Brig. Gen. Warren de Leon, Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (IMEG) director, said the complaints against Mark Lester San Rafael, Mark Hiroshi San Rafael and Eleazar Stephen Fuentes, were filed by an IMEG personnel who happened to be at the scene when the trio carried out their prank on April 6.

The vloggers staged a scene wherein men wearing black bonnets kidnapped an individual along a street in Barangay CAA - BF International.

Unknown to them, an off-duty police officer, S/Sgt. Ronnie Conmingo of the IMEG, was in front of a nearby store when the content creators staged their stunt.

A police investigator with 26 years of experience in the Philippine National Police (PNP), Conmingo immediately pulled out his handgun and ordered them to stop, unaware that it was just a prank.

One of the vloggers approached Conmingo and clarified it was just a prank. The policeman was initially hesitant but later put his handgun down after he was certain it was a stunt.

To teach the vloggers a lesson, Conmingo filed a complaint against them before the city prosecutor’s office.

De Leon admonished the vloggers for putting themselves in danger with their prank.

“Mas maging malawak ang isipan, isipin ng mabuti gagawin o ginagawang content (Be broad-minded, think carefully about the content you want to do),” he said in an interview with Pulis at Ur Serbis program over UNTV.

The PNP on Friday warned other vloggers never to make jokes about crimes as they could be held accountable for tumultus and other disturbances of public order, which carries a prison term of six years.

If a video of the prank is uploaded on social media platforms, PNP public information office chief Col. Redrico Maranan said the penalty is doubled to 12 years for violation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act.