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MANILA, Philippines — It’s tit for tat against purveyors of fake news for the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which has organized its own “keyboard warriors” – of truth tellers.
At the Kapihan sa Manila Bay Forum yesterday, Comelec Chairman George Garcia said 30 of the poll body’s personnel have been assigned to man an information monitoring center in Quezon City established in partnership with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).
“We check posts, comments, information especially in social media. More or less we have 30 people there to provide the public with the right information” on elections issues, Garcia said.
“If they have keyboard warriors, we also have our own who would tell only the truth,” he said. “You see if we remain silent to (false) allegations and comments in social media, our elections will suffer.”
Garcia noted that the Comelec has been requesting different social media platforms to take down misinformation and disinformation.
However, he said, it takes time to remove fake news from cyberspace.
He stressed that the poll body has to deal not only with vote buying and illegal campaigning but with massive misinformation and disinformation that threaten to tarnish the integrity of Monday’s elections.
With the elections only four days away, Garcia said he sees disinformation and misinformation proliferating even more.
The DICT admitted that Meta is not acting fast enough to take down spurious accounts and fake news. Meta is the parent company of Facebook and Instagram.
“We’ve seen progress and now, we’re working together to strengthen what’s already in place, with an emphasis on faster, more responsive action,” Renato Paraiso, DICT assistant secretary for legal affairs and concurrent officer-in-charge of the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center, said.
“Meta has a duty to ensure its platforms are not used to undermine democracy. Slow response times are not acceptable, especially during an election period,” DICT Secretary Henry Rhoel Aguda said.
“We’re aligned on the goals,” said Aguda. “But we expect Meta to step up – quickly, clearly and consistently. The safety of Filipinos in the digital space depends on it.”
Aguda and other officials of the DICT and Meta met last May 2 to thresh out measures for strengthening existing enforcement mechanisms and improving response timelines.
“Filipino content carries cultural nuance – humor, sarcasm, regional dialects. Without deeper engagement from Meta’s moderation teams, critical context is missed and legitimate content may be wrongly removed or harmful content can slip through,” the DICT chief said. “They need to invest in localized moderation and clear escalation channels.”
Zero violence
Aiming for zero violence during the elections on Monday, the Philippine National Police will deploy over 163,000 police officers on election day.
PNP chief Gen. Rommel Marbil warned police commanders they better shape up or face sanctions if election-related violence erupts in their areas of jurisdiction on the day of the elections.
“There will be reckoning for people who will not in any way, or will not be effective in the implementation of zero violence, especially for those on the ground,” he told reporters yesterday.
Marbil led the activation of the media action center at Camp Crame where journalists can get reports on incidents related to the polls. He also showcased the capabilities of the national election monitoring action center, the nerve center of election security operations.
“Our goal is zero violence. We want to make sure this midterm election will be honest, orderly and peaceful,” Marbil said.
The number of police officers to be deployed on election day represents 69 percent of the 235,000-strong police force.
The Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard and the Bureau of Fire Protection will contribute a total of 37,817 personnel.
With less than a week before the elections, Marbil said the public should expect stricter security measures, including the establishment of checkpoints and chokepoints.
The PNP will also secure transportation hubs as they expect a surge in trips to the provinces.
Marbil said they are keeping a close watch on the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Abra, two areas with a history of election-related violence.
The public may report cases of vote buying through the PNP’s 911 emergency hotline.
Marbil warned the public against using the hotline for prank calls.
“Once you make a call we know where you are making a call from and your phone will register in our system, and therefore we can file a case anytime against you,” he said.
EU observers
The European Union, meanwhile, has sent 104 short-term observers for the May 12 elections, bringing to 226 the total number of election observers in the country.
“Together with the core team and the long-term observers, they will enhance the mission’s presence, reach and capacity on election day, as well as during the polling, automated counting and canvassing of results,” chief observer and member of the European Parliament Marta Temido said at a press briefing yesterday.
“On election day, the EU observers will be mobile on the ground, visiting different precincts from the opening at 5 a.m. to the closing at 7 p.m. Then, each team will observe the closing procedures at one polling precinct and remain there until the counting operations are over,” she added.
After each visit, the observers will fill out an observation form and send it to the EU Election Observation Mission (EOM) headquarters in Manila.
The teams will also observe the functioning of the election technology.
Temido said the EOM “aims to contribute to the integrity of the elections, without interfering nor validating its results.”
“Constructive recommendations will be the legacy of our mission, offered to the consideration of people and authorities in the same spirit of cooperation and partnership with the Philippines that marks our presence in the country since our arrival,” she added. – Emmanuel Tupas, Rainier Allan Ronda, Pia Lee-Brago
