Nelson Morales

Eight of the eleven subpoenaed vloggers, including former press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, columnist Mary Jane Quiambao-Reyes, and writer Krizette Laureta-Chu, attended the third hearing on fake news by the House Tri-Committee at the House of Representatives in Quezon City on Friday, March 21, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/file

Article (news)

Jonathan Frederic De Santos

ABS-CBN News

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib" style="width:960px"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1742803969879174255601834620250321fake-news-tri-comm-hearing-MT10.webp" style="width:960px" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Eight of the eleven subpoenaed vloggers, including former press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, columnist Mary Jane Quiambao-Reyes, and writer Krizette Laureta-Chu, attended the third hearing on fake news by the House Tri-Committee at the House of Representatives in Quezon City on Friday, March 21, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/file"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Eight of the eleven subpoenaed vloggers, including former press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, columnist Mary Jane Quiambao-Reyes, and writer Krizette Laureta-Chu, attended the third hearing on fake news by the House Tri-Committee at the House of Representatives in Quezon City on Friday, March 21, 2025. Maria Tan, ABS-CBN News/file </span></span></span></div><p>MANILA — “Do we really need freedom?” Mocha Uson — a vlogger and later a Palace official — said in June 2016 on concerns about human rights under the incoming administration of then President-elect Rodrigo Duterte, “or do we need discipline?”</p><p>Nine years later, after the House held hearings on disinformation where members scolded some content creators and influencers affiliated with Duterte, she said: &quot;R.I.P. Freedom of Expression.&quot;</p><p>The change in tone mirrors the shift in political winds since 2022,  with the Palace — now under President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. — cracking down on disinformation, including content from social media personalities it used to be on the same side of.</p><p>Proposed solutions from Congress, however, have not changed since the pandemic, when spreading &quot;false information about the COVID-19 crisis&quot; was penalized.</p><p>&quot;Kailangan ho tayo may batas din doon pati ‘yong mga nagse-share-share na ‘yan sasabit din kasi parang kino-condone mo alam mo namang fake,&quot; ACT-CIS Party-list Rep. Erwin Tulfo, a broadcaster and frontrunner in surveys for senator, said.</p><p>(We should have a law where even those who share this are held accountable because it&#x27;s like you&#x27;re condoning something that you know is fake)</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/21/erwin-tulfo-even-those-just-sharing-fake-news-should-be-penalized-1856">Erwin Tulfo: Even those just sharing &#x27;fake news&#x27; should be penalized</a></div><p>Others on the administration&#x27;s senatorial slate hold similar sentiments, with former Senate President Vicente Sotto III saying a bill against &quot;fake news&quot; would be among the first he will file if elected.</p><p>At least <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/22/qcpd-official-cop-who-threatened-marcos-interpol-icc-had-mood-swing-issues-2120">one arrest has already been made</a>, with the National Bureau of Investigation saying it is also investigating other vloggers.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/2/22/search-warrant-served-vs-vlogger-who-claimed-torre-was-hospitalized-1809">Search warrant served vs vlogger who claimed Torre was hospitalized</a></div><p>The Department of Agriculture is also working with the NBI to go after people claiming farmers in Nueva Ecija had been driven to suicide by low palay prices, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/business/2025/3/22/da-disputes-reports-farmers-taking-own-lives-due-to-low-palay-prices-1615">saying this is disinformation that can affect people&#x27;s lives</a>.</p><div><strong>HARSH WORDS AT HOUSE HEARING</strong></div><p>Three committees of the House this week pushed through with hearings into disinformation, with members clashing with some content creators, two of whom admitted to not verifying information that they post about.</p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2IY76XgEECM?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><strong></strong></div><p>Three broke down in tears — among them content creator and lifestyle editor Krizette Chu, who apologized to Manila Rep. Bienvenido Abante for calling the government stupid.</p><p>She also acknowledged that she had no proof of her claim of massive resignations from the uniformed services in protest of former president Duterte&#x27;s arrest and transfer to the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands. </p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/21/showbiz-reporters-content-creators-say-sorry-during-house-hearing-on-fake-news-2109">Showbiz reporters? Content creators say sorry during House hearing on fake news</a></div><p>She was, she said, going by the impression that she got from watching TikTok videos.</p><p>Content creators who identify as Duterte supporters have objected to being singled out by the House, where Marcos Jr. enjoys majority support and where his cousin, Leyte Rep. Martin Romuladez, is speaker.</p><p>But SAGIP Party-list Rep. Rodante Marcoleta, running for senator as part of Duterte&#x27;s slate, has been active in the hearings too.</p><p>He spent past sessions lecturing a lawyer <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=drAjNWtanIo">who made unflattering vlogs about him</a>, and clashing with Philippine Coast Guard Jay Tarriela whom he thought had called him a traitor.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/2/18/confronted-by-marcoleta-tarriela-retorts-why-would-i-defend-you-when-you-re-calling-me-g-go-1611">Confronted by Marcoleta, Tarriela retorts: &#x27;Why would I defend you when you&#x27;re calling me g*go?&#x27;</a></div><div><strong>MOST FILIPINOS SEE &#x27;FAKE NEWS&#x27; AS A SERIOUS ISSUE</strong></div><p>Beyond rivalries between factions of government, disinformation has also been used to push narratives that suspected drug users deserve to be killed and that activists are engaged in terrorism, as well as influence public sentiment on issues like the West Philippine Sea.</p><p>More than half of Filipinos, 59%, see &quot;fake news&quot; in social media as a serious issue, according to <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/13/most-filipinos-say-fake-news-on-internet-a-serious-problem-sws-1240">Social Weather Stations findings released this month</a>. Slightly more respondents, 62%, said it is also a serious issue in corporate media.</p><p> SWS said 65% also said they find it hard to distinguish what is real and what isn&#x27;t across all media.</p><p>That has been made harder by what law and rights group IDEALS Inc. calls a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/allrightsph/posts/pfbid0DbAb618j2oFomU9NW5SnRkc11kURDzcs98EzGPkwMapQqfoBAA4BDfgKSCBdD6Wel?__cft__[0]=AZWYQ1Ig9L4ikFUWcMFFXJB8wnAr_Y7qO-wfa_gMrPCdvis8WsSrESYBySY30cWJpPcydgkyNAOINiWCN6_c-N4n8QuVG2Hw3fsaEJAbG2up4muZ3-8pToblzT9NxDQ15cMWnErl8u7H9K84CeB-JpvWjZMFssUkxrodgFNFJz5lMA&amp;__tn__=%2CO%2CP-R">&quot;no consequences&quot; online culture</a> &quot;where Filipinos have become desensitized to the pain of others: treating death as a joke, turning serious issues into sources of mockery, and wishing harm upon those they disagree with.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/22/analyst-says-phs-problem-on-fake-news-can-get-worse-amid-halalan2025-1327">Analyst says PH&#x27;s problem on fake news &#x27;can get worse&#x27; amid #Halalan2025</a></div><div><strong>PUNITIVE &#x27;GOVERNMENT-ONLY&#x27;APPROACH PROBLEMATIC</strong></div><p>But media literacy and rights groups have cautioned against criminalization, saying this would be prone to abuse and could be used against legitimate criticism and dissent.</p><p>During the pandemic, a provision penalizing &quot;false information&quot; led to arrests <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/04/21/20/opinion-gagging-truth-tellers-in-the-time-of-covid19"></a><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/blogs/opinions/04/21/20/opinion-gagging-truth-tellers-in-the-time-of-covid19">for satirical posts and for complaints about COVID-19 response</a>. Even without the COVID-19 emergency law, libel and cyber libel remain and can and has been similarly used.</p><p>Even without the threat of criminal proceedings, government proposals to be an arbiter of truth bring to mind past campaigns like the #RealNumbersPH data releases in the early days of the bloody drug war and government &quot;truth-tagging&quot; against progressives and activists.</p><p>Attempts to counter disinformation in the Philippines, <a href="https://eastasiaforum.org/2024/10/16/tempering-the-philippines-ai-disinformation-storm/">writes Nanyang Technological University researcher Jose Miguelito Enriquez</a>, will need to address low digital literacy among Filipinos as well as &quot;the nature of disinformation operations in the country — a profitable, well-entrenched enterprise with links to political barons who seek their services.&quot;</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/18/sick-of-fake-news-tap-your-emotional-intelligence-advocate-suggests-1801">Sick of fake news? Tap your &#x27;emotional intelligence,&#x27; advocate suggests</a></div><p>The House hearings have so far focused on individual content creators and not, as disinformation researchers have been suggesting for years, <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/video/spotlight/05/06/22/troll-hunters-should-target-chief-architects-of-disinformation-expert">the networks that craft and spread that content.</a></p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/3/21/china-funded-seminar-for-filipino-social-media-influencers-ex-pco-chief-admits-2354">China funded seminar for Filipino social media influencers, ex-PCO chief admits</a></div><div><strong>COALITIONS</strong></div><p>Enriquez said it would be best for government and civil society to work together against disinformation by combining resources and expertise.</p><p>Apart from shoring up gaps in capacity, &quot;coalition-building [would also lend] counter-disinformation operations public credibility by settling lingering doubts about a government-only approach,&quot; he says.</p><p>There have been attempts at that around less contentious issues like investment and confidence scams. </p><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Yt1ZnSfJwtk?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span></div><p>The Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, which has been working on helping the public be more critical of these cyber scams, has also announced more collaboration with civil society to address <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/2024/7/27/expert-warns-of-escalation-in-use-of-deepfakes-after-release-of-fake-video-of-marcos-jr-1247">deepfakes, the newest tech-assisted form of disinformation</a>.</p><p>&quot;Hindi na ho natin isi-centralize ang pag-decide whether it’s deepfake or not, we would like to have a community standard for this, independent fact-checking na ibibigay natin sa civil society,&quot; CICC Undersecretary Alex Ramos said of efforts that will include a planned National Deepfake Task Force.</p><p>(We will no longer centralize deciding on whether something is a deepfake or nor, we would like to have a community standard for this, independent fact-checking that will come from civil society)</p><p>With Facebook parent Meta <a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/nation/2025/1/10/meta-s-fact-check-pivot-to-hit-orgs-in-ph-global-south-worst-experts-1549">winding down support for fact-checking services</a> on its platforms, that kind of collaboration may be the middle ground between the free speech absolutism preferred by tech billionaires Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk and strict government regulation in Southeast Asia, where the internet, according to US think tank Freedom House, is only partly free.</p>

<p>Proposed solutions from Congress have not changed since the pandemic, when spreading "false information about the COVID-19 crisis" was penalized.</p>

Proposed solutions from Congress have not changed since the pandemic, when spreading "false information about the COVID-19 crisis" was penalized.

WRAP: Congress leans toward regulation, punishment amid probe into disinformation

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WRAP: Congress leans toward regulation, punishment amid probe into disinformation

Jonathan de Santos,

ABS-CBN News

Published Mar 24, 2025 04:13 PM PHT

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Disinformation

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