Local Top Gear Philippines has been in the spotlight in the last couple of days after posting the Facebook profile of a suspected shooter which turned out was a simple mistaken identify. However, damage has been done and the victim has been on the receiving end of death threats and ridicule, prompting him to deactivate his FB account.
Nestor Punzalan has been wrongly identified as the person who shot a biker Mark Vincent Garalde in a recent roadside altercation that resulted into a murder incident. With close to 3 million Facebook fans, Top Gear Philippines was closely monitoring and promoting news and updates about the incident. However, the information they were passing around turned out to be false.
Top Gear PH was not the first one to report the wrong conduction sticker which led them to report the wrong person associated with the wrong information. However, they were the one who linked to Punzalan’s Facebook page that prompted people to mob him on FB.
Nestor came to the NBI and his name has been cleared. The real suspect has now been identified. Vernon Sarne, Editor of Top Gear PH, said this through a comment on their Facebook Page:
“I was responsible for posting the photo of Mr. Punzalan’s vehicle, and I realize now that I shouldn’t have done so. I accept full responsibility. This is all on me. I will do my best to reach out to Mr. Punzalan and personally apologize to him and his family. The buck stops here. This is all my fault…”
However, Punzalan replied in a report done on 24 Oras, GMA:
“Di pwede yung sorry-sorry na lang. Grabe ang ginawa nila, dapat silang managot.”
Their side is now moving towards filing a case on through the Cybercrime Prevention Act.
With all the bad publicity TGP’s been getting, I wouldn’t be surprised of the BBC (owner of Top Gear trademarks) terminates their brand licensing agreement with Summit Media. I’m sure a prestigious and respected organization like the BBC will not want one of their prized assets being tainted by Pinoy tabloid “journalism”