SENIOR Deputy Speaker Aurelio “Dong” Gonzales Jr. on Sunday called for a nationwide effort to protect Filipino voters from digital deception, citing a report that fake social media accounts were used to defend former president Rodrigo Roa Duterte and are now being deployed to manipulate online discourse ahead of the 2025 midterm elections.
“We must defend the Filipino people not just from guns and goons, but from ghost accounts flooding their social media feeds with propaganda and deception,” Gonzales said.
The Pampanga lawmaker was reacting to a Reuters report that about one-third of social media accounts discussing Duterte’s recent International Criminal Court (ICC) case were fake.
The same tactics, according to Israel-based tech firm Cyabra, are now being used in a “deliberate, organized” campaign to shape public perception around the May elections.
Gonzales warned that the growing sophistication of digital manipulation poses a serious threat to the integrity of the country’s electoral process.
“When bots, trolls, and fake profiles can reach millions of Filipinos and alter the truth with just a few clicks, democracy itself is under attack,” Gonzales said.
Gonzales urged the Department of Education, Commission on Higher Education and the Department of Information and Communications Technology to launch a joint national digital literacy program to help students and the public identify and resist coordinated disinformation campaigns.
“It’s not enough to fact-check after the damage is done. We need to inoculate our people against lies and fake news—especially the youth who are most active online and most vulnerable to digital manipulation,” Gonzales said.
He also called on all political parties to categorically reject the use of “click armies” and paid influencers.
“Disinformation is not a campaign strategy. It is a threat to free elections and informed choice,” Gonzales said. “If we truly believe in democracy, then we must all play fair.”
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