The municipality of Culion will not take insults sitting down, even from any ordinary citizen, who will rant on social media over its Yes vote outcome in the recent plebiscite.
On Wednesday, the town formally passed a resolution declaring a resident of its neighboring town Coron as “persona non grata”.
Town mayor Virginia De Vera on Wednesday (March 24) signed Resolution No. 2021-1762, declaring a certain Niña Gonzales, a resident of the neighboring town of Coron, describing her Facebook posts on the issue “barbaric” and slamming her for disrespecting the town.
The resolution stated that the move was based on Gonzales’s “hostile and provoking” social media posts and was prompted by Mayor De Vera’s recommendation.
In a screenshot which was entered into as evidence by the Sangguniang Bayan to justify its claim, Gonzales was quoted posting on her personal Facebook account, “Culion na lang ang hatiin sa tatlong probinsya. Culion, Palawan Oriental; Culion, Palawan del Sur; and Culion, Palawan del Norte.”
“Tanggalin na sa Palawan ang Culion. Magsolo sila,” another post from Gonzales read.
Gonzales, in a separate Facebook post, said the town’s persona-non-grata declaration has “no basis in any of our national laws” and “is clearly unconstitutional”.
“Only a court order can limit a person’s liberty of abode or right to travel and the grounds are only related to national security, public safety, and public health,” read Gonzales’s post.
The “yes” votes to the three-way Palawan split only won in a slim margin in Culion with 4,329 votes, over the 4,158 “no” votes.
Earlier this week, De Vera also engaged in a social media word war with a doctor at Culion Sanitarium and General Hospital (CSGH) over its critic against “trapo”, without naming anyone on his post.
