The man who produced the controversial Kalapati’s (dove) moment video and posted it at www.youtube .com was arrested yesterday after three weeks of surveillance by police agents.
The four-minute video that is now circulating in the internet worldwide angered residents and local officials here because it features two mentally-ill male youngsters that were allegedly intimidated by Angel Salanga III to do daring kissing scenes in public while he’s taking video footage.
Salanga named the younger actoras kalapati.
Salanga, 20, a resident of Barangay II this city and a drop out nursing student, admitted that he produced the video and uploaded it to youtube after he was duped by friends.
Although Salanga has pulled out the video from his account, some viewers and internet users already downloaded a copy and its now proliferating and believed to have been pirated for commercial purposes.
The city government will initiate the filing of complaints against Salanga and they already coordinated with the Prosecutor’s office to determine all the charges that would be filed against him such as public scandal, human rights violation, abuse of mentally-ill persons, cyber crime, among others.
“It is mandatory for the city government to take action in their (mentally-ill victims) behalf because the government now serves as their parent. It is the obligation of the city to act if they were abused,” said Councilor Francisco Ortega Jr.
Ortega, representing his brother Mayor Pablo Ortega who is on official trip to US. that Prosecutor will sort out all the necessary charges to be filed against Salanga.
“The differently-abled persons (victims) are not capable to defend themselves with abuses. They were considered as minors. So if there is no parent taking care of them, the state comes into the picture because it is our obligation. If we do not take action, it is dereliction of duty on our part,” Ortega said.
Vice Mayor Pancrasio Nisce, the acting mayor, said that the city council will investigate the matter to penalize the perpetuators of the scandal because it has tainted the image of the city, especially that San Fernando was one of the advocates for responsible citizenship program of the Institute for Solidarity in Asia.
“This (video) has created an outrage, not only in the Philippines but worldwide, because of the compromising and unbecoming situation of two retarded males. While we appreciate the leaps and bounds of technology, we can not dispel nor ignore the production and proliferation of this negative video material,” Nisce said. |
