Police fail to find cellphone jammers in Manila raid

Police swooped down on a shop suspected of selling cell phone jammers in Manila’s downtown district, but failed to find any of the devices. Teams from the Manila Police District searched the shop after receiving a tip that it sold at least four jamming devices Tuesday, Radio dzBB reported on Wednesday. But the search proved futile as the police failed to find the equipment. Earlier, the Commission on Elections had voiced concern over reports that some 5,000 jamming devices were brought into the country. However, Comelec commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal said the body already has contingency plans in place, in case there is no cell signal to transmit poll results. In a separate report during the same day, the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) said it will help a Philippine National Police (PNP) campaign in seizing and arresting individuals who sell these devices. “The AFP will help go after these jammers," AFP public affairs office chief Romeo Brawner said. Besides saying that these were illegal – citing an announcement from the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) – the jammers can only by used by the military, Brawner said. Intelligence efforts to find out locations of these jammers “will help [the AFP] in confiscation of these jammers and perhaps the destruction ng sa gayon ay hindi magamit ito sa eleksyon." Although the AFP is authorized to buy and import these jammers, blocking cellphone signals have “no intelligence value for the armed forces." However, the AFP makes use of its signal locators, which in turn, has intelligence value in terms of locating signals. - GMANews.TV