Isis posts 34 times a day on social media: PIA exec

By Nora Soriño
Iligan City Bureau Chief
and Sita Asequia
Correspondent

Iligan City — Isis posts in social media 34 times a day, declared Harold E. Clavite, Director-General of the Philippine Information Agency, to reporters here over the weekend.

“Palupig ba ta ani,” Clavite rhetorically asked speaking as keynote speaker during the induction ceremonies of the Iligan-Lanao Energy Press Corps, led by its president, Richel Umel.

Clavite added that there is a need to step up our own efforts to counter the Isis strategy to lure people to join them.

He said these people, which are portrayed as wearing black and raising the black flag of the Isis are not necessarily dressed as such all the time. Some of them are wearing neck ties, just like business executives, doing their thing of luring prospects to join them, in plush hotels, condos and other similar residences. Their posts in the internet consist of press releases, informatics, videos, etc. Languages used vary and they may be English, Arabic, Russian, French, Spanish, whatever, imploring onto believers and others to join them in their “jihad,” as it is their “duty” to do so.

Clavite enjoined the reporters to counter  them by stepping up their own moves on the matter, even as he cautioned people not to just post on social media “anything.”

“You have a cute child or grand child,” he said, “and you like to post them there in the social media, please do not,” he said. There are syndicates that seek those cute kids out there and you might become “easy targets” for them, he added.

With their expertise on the new technology, they will be able to reach out to their “finds” via the Internet.

He also cautioned people not “accept” a friend on Facebook easily just because you have some “mutual friends” there.

“Be very careful,” Clavite said.

He advised the reporters not to let their children be hooked very much on electronic gadgets, as they might be playing games that stretch their young minds too much, and the result would be a tendency to get violent.

The National Grid Corporation of the Philippines was among the principal prime movers of the press corp. and among its personalities were Beth Ladaga, Communications Specialist, and Engr. Cesar Sanchez.