Some friends later sent her the link to a malicious video by vlogger Renan Padawi (who goes by the name “Jackfloyd Sawyer” online) attacking her, but she brushed it off. She did not know Padawi personally. But this was not the first time she had had to deal with online attacks, after all.

But because close relations insisted, she finally forced herself to watch it. Her reaction was so visceral, that it took time for her to get to the end of the video. 

With each statement that Padawi made, Fokno cringed: “Kulang ka lang sa dilig (You just need watering)!” A rude way of saying she was badly in need of sex.

“Baka ‘pag nagkita tayo, shit, ibabangka kita sa dagat na walang hanggan. (Maybe when we see each other, I will send you off on a boat to the next life.)” In essence, threatening her life.

“It really was bastos. Nandiri ako. (It was really crude. It was disgusting.) I felt violated. He was saying some very sexually explicit things and kept pointing his finger and raising his clenched fist,” Fokno’s voice cracked as she recalled details during an interview with Rappler in March.

“I suffered sleepless nights, public ridicule, embarrassment, anguish. I felt unsafe online and in the real world. Knowing that he had many followers, I feared for my safety. I became paranoid and I made sure that I was home every day before it got dark.” 

Fokno’s experience is not unique. Following the rise of social media, cybermisogyny has taken gender-based violence online. 

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There is no need to suffer in silence, however. Filipinos using the digital space have avenues of redress for incidents such as these. 

As of May 2022, 3,700 cyber libel cases have been filed since the law was passed. From 2019 to 2022, 754 cases of violations of the RA 11313 (Safe Spaces Act) were reported.

Laws like the Safe Spaces Act and Cybercrime Prevention Act, as well as various support groups can hold individuals accountable and ease trauma that can result from online hate in all its many forms. What is important is to take action. 

Roots of online misogyny

Men do not have a monopoly on misogyny, according to licensed professional teacher, psychometrician, and psychologist Eizaleen Fusingan-Lappay. But, to a certain extent, it thrives because society conditions us to think that women are inferior to men, and as such, are subject to their power and authority. 

A United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) study conducted from 2017 to 2022 shows that 99.5% of all Filipinos have biases against women.

To a degree, the pervasive milieu of online hate contradicts a number of Philippine core values such as pakikipag-kapwa (treating the other as an extension of the self), according to Carolyn Sobritchea of the Commission on Higher Education’s Technical Panel on Gender and Women’s Studies, and the University of the Philippines’ Center for Women’s Studies Foundation, Inc.

However, she said, some of our indigenous values, like utang na loob (debt of gratitude), can be misused, especially if appropriated by the ruling class for their personal agenda and political gains.

Lappay attributed the boldness of perpetrators of cybermisogyny to the online disinhibition effect, which makes a person disregard societal norms due to the anonymity afforded them by online platforms. 

Addressing trauma: Cybermisogyny and its discontents

Cybermisogyny can take many forms, from abusive language to grave threats. 

“Things happen very fast online,” Sobritchea told Rappler in an interview last May. “Someone can post a woman’s naked photo or make a defamatory statement with the click of a button. The damage to someone’s reputation spreads fast, resulting in trauma and emotional distress.”

Some people may be sitting with unresolved feelings that are building up as trauma, which is when residual negative energy or feelings stored in the body remain unresolved after an experience or event.

Following an encounter with cybermisogyny, Lappay said, it is important to undergo debriefing sessions. She strongly advised working with a mental health professional to process the experience in a safe space. 

Should someone not be able or ready to go to a face-to-face therapy session, there are  support groups online and MindNation has 24/7 chat support that can help.

Different ways to cope

Whenever Christine Abrigana, who started Lagim: A Filipino True Crime Podcast in 2020, receives snarky comments, she steps away from her screen until the emotions pass. 

She has made it a practice to delete inflammatory comments and block commenters because she doesn’t like dwelling on them. She also doesn’t discuss them with friends, though she sometimes vents on her Instagram Stories about mean comments. 

When she decides to answer them, she draws from her experience working in public family law and approaches with compassion, understanding, and respect – mindful that the person on the receiving end may be going through something.

When activist and academic Renee Karunungan-Edwards’ Facebook wall and message inbox were flooded with hate-filled messages following a post about then-candidate Rodrigo Duterte in March 2016, she documented them, taking screenshots that she then shared on her wall.

A previously published Rappler report documented the abusive messages online. Some Duterte supporters said back then: “Ul*l. T*ngina mo. UP ka man din galing, pero utak dilis ka. Bobo ka ang pangit mo. Sana ma-rape ka, manakawan ka. ‘Yan gusto mo, ‘di ba? Ayaw mo ng pagbabago dahil ayaw mo kay Duterte. Sana lang one of these days ma-rape ka para matauhan ka.” 

(Stupid. S*n of a b*tch. You are from UP but you have the brain of an anchovy. You’re stupid and ugly. I hope you get raped, or get mugged. That’s what you want, right? You don’t want change because you are against Duterte. I hope one of these days you get raped so you’ll become enlightened.)

She subsequently filed cases – with legal services offered pro bono – citing violations of the Cybercrime Prevention Act and Omnibus Election Code. As of March, the Comelec had handed down subpoenas. The legal process is ongoing. Karunungan-Edwards, who is now based in the United Kingdom, will attend court proceedings online.

Fokno, Abrigana, and Karunungan-Edwards have accepted that the online attacks on them ebb and flow, depending on the political climate in the Philippines.

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[ANALYSIS] Cybermisogyny violates human rights

Online crime and offline consequences

After suffering through many sleepless nights and anxiety, Fokno decided to file a case against Padawi. Since she lives in Benguet, Fokno went to the Philippine National Police Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit in the Cordillera. There, through an app, an officer helped her document the video that Padawi posted.

Then, she wrote an affidavit. She also asked witnesses, who had watched the video and seen firsthand the effects it had on Fokno, to write statements.

With those documents, a police officer accompanied her to the provincial prosecutor in Benguet. In September 2022, the case People of the Philippines vs. Renan Padawi was officially filed. In February 2023, Padawi pleaded guilty to violating the Safe Spaces Act. He has yet to settle the fine and civil liability of P150,000.

Fokno did not need to spend any money on any step in the process. 

She has been encouraged by messages she receives from women, many of whom are strangers to her, thanking her for inspiring them to fight back against their attackers.

Building communities of empathy and action

According to Lappay, empathy-building connections and communications will empower people to speak kindly and mindfully online, as well as to help set awareness in dealing with cybermisogynists, including forging alliances to help those who are defamed and shamed on various online platforms.

“We have the power to create safe spaces in the virtual world if we speak up and stand for the victims,” she said. Then, we can once again look at each other, eye to eye, as fellow human beings and extensions of each other, though mediated by technology. 

Sobritchea advocates for a multi-layered approach. First, for content moderation of online platforms to prevent online abuse – knowing full well that there are risks to regulation, which can curtail freedoms, especially of small organizations and the marginalized. 

Next, by showing models of positive portrayal of women and giving space for their narratives to be heard. And finally, by empowering women to help them protect themselves. She said there are many laws and mechanisms to combat violence against women.

Dr. Gregor Mate, who has lectured and published extensively on life-long impacts of trauma, blames our modern globalized culture for what he calls an epidemic of loneliness. 

But an antidote lies in technology too: “We have to use the technologies that we have to connect with each other. People need to build virtual communities where they can share their ideas, their miseries, and their joys, and talk about their values. Seek connection on the local level, internet level.”

Though it seems that cybermisogyny has become commonplace in our society, individuals and groups can fight back to destroy the culture of online hate: by healing from their trauma, by seeking justice under the law, and, in the long-term, by building communities of care that hark back to the values deeply embedded in our Filipino identity. – Rappler.com

Mari-An Santos is a fellow of the Aries Rufo Journalism Fellowship.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The false claim can be found in a screenshot from a Twitter post on June 13, 2023, with 339 views. The Twitter account no longer exists as of writing.

The following can also be seen in the screenshot: “President Marcos built a massive infrastructure program and had other achievements while succeeding presidents had little to show despite their huge budgets.”

The same screenshot has been spreading as early as 2019; Rappler published a fact-check of the false claim on April 8, 2019.  In that article, the source of the screenshot was a Facebook post by Larry Gadon, who was a senatorial candidate in the 2016, 2019, and 2022 elections. Gadon is also a lawyer who has been suspended by the Supreme Court at least twice for unbecoming behavior and languge.

The facts: The figures cited in the screenshot are incorrect and misleading. The NSO, now the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), releases annual expenditures, not summaries of government spending by presidency. It is also misleading to compare the peso values without adjusting for inflation.

Information from the PSA: The April 2019 Rappler fact-check cited information published by the PSA on government income and expenditures from 1966 to 1997. The figures are shown in millions, contradicting the erroneously-inflated figures shown in the screenshot.

The same information above can also be found in two resources published by the PSA and available online: (1) the 1994 Philippine Yearbook’s “Table 21.1 Summary of Government Income and Expenditures: 1964-1994,” which shows government expenditures from 1966 to 1993:

(2) the 1997 Philippine Statistical Yearbook’s Table 15.4, which shows government expenditures from 1994 to 1997. There are some inconsistencies in the figures prior to 1994 here compared to the figures in the Philippine Yearbook. (The Philippine Yearbook and the Philippine Statistical Yearbook are different publications.)

In both sources, the figures are expressed in millions. 

Adding up these figures would lead to the same results cited in Rappler’s previous fact-check:

A note on the numbers:

• 600,778 million pesos is 600,778 × 1,000,000 = 600,778,000,000 or P600.778 billion 
• 1,364,498 million pesos is 1,364,498 × 1,000,000 = 1,364,498,000,000, or around P1.364 trillion
• 2,237,907 million pesos is 2,237,907 × 1,000,000 = 2,237,907,000,000, or around P2.238 trillion

Inflated figures: The numbers in the screenshot incorrectly used commas and decimal places, resulting in outrageously large figures.

Adjusting decimal places, Marcos’ supposed spending of “P486,273 billion” would translate to P486 trillion.

Meanwhile, Aquino’s “P1,077,895 T (trillion)” expenditures would inflate the number to P1.077 quintillion, and Ramos’ “P2,237,907 T” spending would be 2.238 quintillion.

Here is a summary of the large numbers involved:

Other inaccuracies in the screenshot: It is inaccurate to state the years 1986-1991 and 1992-1997 for the Aquino and Ramos administrations, respectively, as was done in the screenshot. Aquino’s term ended on June 30, 1992, and Ramos on June 30, 1998. 

Therefore, in adding government expenditures, figures for 1998 would still have to be included for Ramos, but the 1997 Philippine Yearbook would be inadequate as a source as it does not have the 1998 expenditures. 

Also, the years mentioned in the screenshot do not properly correspond to the time periods covered by each administration as far as adding up budgets is concerned. For instance, 1986 covers both the Marcos and Aquino administrations, as Aquino took office in February 1986; 1992 covers both Aquino and Ramos. Additionally, almost the entirety of 1965 was under the administration of former president Diosdado Macapagal, as Marcos’s term only began on December 30, 1965.

As pointed out in Rappler’s previous fact-check: “To begin with, the NSO does not summarize government spending by presidency. What it publishes are annual expenditures.”

Comparability of pesos over time: The government expenditures in the various sources published by the PSA are nominal values, which are not adjusted for inflation. Without adjusting for inflation, it would be misleading to compare nominal values as the value of past pesos changes over time. – Percival Bueser/ Rappler.com

Percival Bueser is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. You may also report dubious claims to #FactsFirstPH tipline by messaging Rappler on Facebook or Newsbreak via Twitter direct message. You may also report through our Viber fact check chatbot. Let us battle disinformation one fact check at a time.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook post containing the claim has 142 reactions, 52 comments, and 59 shares as of writing. It also includes a link to a Facebook video bearing the same claim with 65,558 views, 4,000 reactions, and 463 comments.

In the video, a narrator says: “Kaya may Maharlika Wealth Fund…dito i-p-pool ang lahat ng mga wealth assets, including gold dollars, investments, profits at iba pang mga national treasures ng Pilipinas, pati mga excess funds ng iba’t ibang ahensya ng gobyerno, na nagprofit na ng mahabang panahon.”

(That’s why there is a Maharlika Wealth Fund… all the wealth assets, including gold dollars, investments, profits, and other national treasures of the Philippines, as well as excess funds of various government agencies that have been making profits for a long time, will be pooled here.)

The narrator also claimed that the elder Marcos had a 50-year gold time deposit. 

The facts: Under Senate Bill No. 2020 or the proposed Maharlika Investment Fund (MIF) Act, the MIF will source its start-up capital from government financial institutions and the national government. No part of the bill mentions any investment of supposed Marcos wealth or gold.

A total of P125 billion will come from the Land Bank of the Philippines (P50 billion), the Development Bank of the Philippines (P25 billion), and the national government (P50 billion).

The MIF will also not draw from the Philippines’ excess wealth, foreign reserves, or pension funds.

Purpose of the fund: The proposed sovereign wealth fund will be used by the government to invest in key sectors to help fund the country’s priority programs. Its objective, according to the bill, is to “promote socioeconomic development.”

“This will be achieved by making strategic and profitable investments in key sectors to preserve and enhance long-term value of the Fund,” read the measure.

Contrary to the Facebook post’s claim, there is no mention of the fund being created for the purpose of reinvesting wealth from the Marcos family.

On alleged gold, dollar investments: Rappler has previously published several fact checks on Marcos’ alleged last will and testament and claims about the family’s wealth and alleged gold ownership.

• FACT CHECK: Marcos didn’t have 50-year gold time deposit
• FACT CHECK: Marcos doesn’t have ‘over a million metric tons’ of gold in banks worldwide
• FALSE: Marcos family owns a ‘million tons of gold’
• FACT CHECK: Marcos didn’t use family wealth for gov’t activities
• FACT CHECK: World Bank doesn’t have Marcos gold deposits

Multiple news stories and articles, including from Rappler, PhilStar, and the Presidential Commission on Good Government all report that the Marcoses’ ill-gotten wealth deposited in banks in Switzerland, Singapore, and the US have been turned over to the Philippine government.

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Status of the bill: On May 31, the controversial Maharlka fund proposal was approved by both chambers of Congress amid opposition from critics, who cited corruption and investment risks, economic challenges, and the bill’s railroading.

The measure now only needs President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s signature before it becomes a law. – Rappler.com

John Sitchon is an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. You may also report dubious claims to #FactsFirstPH tipline by messaging Rappler on Facebook or Newsbreak via Twitter direct message. You may also report through our Viber fact check chatbot. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The claim can be found in a video posted on June 15 on a supposed news YouTube channel with 484,000 subscribers. The video has 8,200 views and 179 likes as of writing.

The facts: The video’s title and thumbnail image claims that Super Typhoon Dodong has entered the PAR, but there have been no announcements from the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical, and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) about any new tropical cyclone following the most recent one, Chedeng (Guchol).

In its 4 am forecast on June 15, PAGASA made no mention of a super typhoon that is forming or has entered the PAR. Instead, the morning report stated sightings of cloud clusters near the Visayas and the northern sections of Mindanao. The southwest monsoon will also continue affecting the western section of Northern Luzon.

PAGASA’s daily weather forecast also contains a detailed account of specific areas in the Philippines that will be affected by the southwest monsoon and localized thunderstorms. Moderate to heavy rains may cause possible flash floods or landslides.

In its 11 am advisory, the weather bureau added that its regional divisions “may issue local heavy rainfall warnings, rainfall/thunderstorm advisories and other severe weather information specific to their areas of responsibility as appropriate.”

The Philippines’ most recent super typhoon was Super Typhoon Mawar (local name Betty), which entered the PAR last May 27 after battering the US island territory of Guam with torrential rain and fierce winds. It was the Philippines’ second tropical cyclone for 2023 and the first super typhoon of the year.

Other false claims: The same YouTube channel has previously made several false claims about typhoons and weather disturbances in the Philippines:

• There is no Tropical Storm Samuel approaching Luzon
• Maymay is not a Super Typhoon
• Tropical Storm Luis was not projected to hit Luzon
• Super Typhoon Nanmadol is not returning to the Philippines
• FALSE: Super Typhoon Ester arrives in the Philippines in June 2022

For the latest weather updates, visit PAGASA’s official social media accounts on Youtube, Facebook, Twitter, and its website. – Katarina Ruflo/Rappler.com

Katarina Ruflo is a graduate of Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program. This fact check was reviewed by a member of Rappler’s research team and a senior editor. Learn more about Rappler’s fact-checking mentorship program here.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook video containing the claim has 120,000 views, 4,400 reactions, 1,300 comments, and 110 shares as of writing. 

In the video, a narrator says: “Sa naging panayam kay National Commission of Senior Citizens o NCSC Chairperson Atty. Franklin Quijano, ipinaliwanag ng chairman na dapat nang i-avail ng mga senior citizen ang bagong benepisyo na ibinigay ng ating Pangulo.”

(In an interview with the National Commission of Senior Citizens or NCSC Chairperson Atty. Franklin Quijano, the chairman explained that senior citizens should take advantage of the new benefits given by our President.)

The facts: In Quijano’s interview on Radyo Pilipinas last June 6, the NCSC chairperson did not say that health insurance benefits for senior citizens is a new program. Since 2014, all senior citizens aged 60 and above have been automatically covered under the national health insurance program of the Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth).

Quijano mentioned the health insurance coverage in the interview when he discussed the commission’s efforts to build up a nationwide database of senior citizens in the country. Quijano said that this will help them profile senior citizens for various government programs that include the provision of health benefits. 

He also brought up the recent P42.9-billion budget released to PhilHealth to cover the one-year health insurance premiums of senior citizens. 

Free since 2014: The national government has been covering the PhilHealth contribution of senior citizens since the enactment of Republic Act 10645 in 2014. The said law amended and expanded the Senior Citizens Act of 2010, which previously provided free health insurance coverage only to indigent senior citizens. – Ailla Dela Cruz/Rappler.com

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. You may also report dubious claims to #FactsFirstPH tipline by messaging Rappler on Facebook or Newsbreak via Twitter direct message. You may also report through our Viber fact check chatbot. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The Facebook post, which has over 1,600 reactions and 2,000 shares, rehashes a similar claim previously fact checked by Rappler on House Bill 6522, the lower chamber’s version of the measure.

The Facebook post also includes a link to a Change.org petition against the bill for people to add their signatures. The petition has 11,148 signatures as of writing.

The facts: Senate Bill 1869 seeks to establish a Center for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC) in the Philippines and empowers health officials to enforce public health measures, although provisions in the proposed law specify conditions for exercising these powers.

Health undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire earlier said that the bill will fill the gaps in health crisis response and will prepare the country for future pandemics or threats to public health. “Nowhere can you find within this CDC draft bill any provision that will state we’re going to have a medical martial law,” Vergeire said.

Conditions: The Facebook post claims that Senate Bill 1869 threatens privacy and security by allowing the government to track people’s location. Article V, Sec. 13(f) states that in case of public health emergencies, the National Telecommunications Commission shall provide the location of patients suspected of contracting a disease upon request of the CDC, “provided that the CDC ensures confidentiality of such information.”

The post also says that the proposed law would empower authorities to mandate Filipinos to go for treatment or quarantine. Under Article V, Sec. 13 (g)(5), the health secretary may “promote treatment, vaccination, or immunization against a contagious disease, [compel] the isolation or quarantine of persons who are unable or unwilling, for reasons of health, religion, or conscience, to undergo immunization or treatment,” provided that the guidelines for exercising this power “shall be formulated with the Department of Justice.”

Functions of the CDC: The CDC would be the “technical authority on forecasting, analysis, strategy, and standards development for the prevention and control of all diseases of public health importance and health security events, whether domestic or international in origin.” 

Article III, Section 6 of the measure lists the functions of the proposed CDC:

• Develop strategies, standards, and policies for disease prevention and control
• Implement disease surveillance and field epidemiology activities
• Perform data collection and analytics
• Establish and strengthen public health laboratories
• Recommend actions for public health threats to appropriate national government bodies
• Lead public health and risk communications
• Conduct and manage health research and evidence synthesis
• Build local capacity for surveillance and health research
• Promote scientific integrity by ensuring that all its products are technically accurate, scientifically and ethically sound, and useful to the government and the intended population through the institutionalization of appropriate mechanisms and bodies

Status of the measure: Senate Bill 1869 is currently pending on second reading. Last March, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. certified the bill as urgent. – Rappler.com

Mari-An Santos is an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow.

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. You may also report dubious claims to #FactsFirstPH tipline by messaging Rappler on Facebook or Newsbreak via Twitter direct message. You may also report through our Viber fact check chatbot. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

The year 2016 could very well be the annus horribilis for community journalism. Suddenly legacy news media outlets became “presstitutes” on social media – thanks to the advent of troll farms of various political camps.

Community journalists were hardest hit by the cyberattacks owing to the more intimate nature and proximity of the people they cover compared to the reportage in metropolitan centers in the country.

It was during this same year that there was a spike in the number of online attacks, harassment, and cyberattacks against community journalists and legacy news media outlets. These online attacks were mainly aimed at silencing reportage on the killings under the pretext of the war on drugs by then-president Rodrigo Duterte.

A study by the Freedom for Media, Freedom for All Network, released on November 23, 2018, documented at least 99 cases of “acute and creeping online and offline attacks against news media organizations and journalists” in the first 28 months of Duterte’s presidency, or from July 1, 2016, to October 31, 2018.

That is roughly four journalists attacked online and offline per day.

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines, the Philippine Press Institute, MindaNews, and the Philippine Center of Investigative Journalism comprise the network.

Red-tagging

In Cagayan de Oro City, online attacks on various social media platforms have taken a more specific tact: red-tagging.

In March 2020, Cagayan de Oro City-based veteran journalist Froilan Gallardo was red-tagged when he showed solidarity with the television network ABS-CBN on the possible cancellation of its legislative franchise. 

Along with other reporters, Gallardo was attending a rally in support of ABS-CBN at the TV network’s regional office in Barangay Bulua when a courier delivered copies of bond paper-sized posters that accused him of being a member of the revolutionary movement.

The material also targeted the late Nonoy Espina, and his sister Inday Espina-Varona (now Rappler head of Regions), Renwynx “Don” Morgado, a staff member at the Misamis Oriental capitol’s information office, and Loi Algarme, a reporter at Radyo Natin.

“Speaking truth to power is not a crime. I’m getting tired of this red-tagging. I say bring it on,” Gallardo said.

Gallardo pointed out that starting in 2016, partisan bloggers and influencers have drowned out legacy media outlets. He said the partisan influencers had flipped the narratives on almost all of the critical issues affecting Philippine provinces.

The algorithm employed by social media platforms, he added, could also be partly to blame. Gallardo said that social media started out as a platform where we could have an exchange of ideas. But when the trolls of partisan political camps took over, a lot of people were effectively misled.

When former journalist Pam Orias was red-tagged in 2019, she said her parents wept and asked her to leave her job at the now-defunct SunStar Cagayan de Oro Daily (Sunstar-CDO).

“It’s really difficult to reconcile with the concerns of your family and your desire to write,” Orias told MindaNews in an August 7, 2019 news article. 

Bandwagon, pressure 

While they appreciate the benefits of social media presence in terms of growing their audience and marketing, Iloilo journalists also acknowledge the downside of the current trend.

May Ortega, news director of Aksyon Radyo-Iloilo, said interaction between a news organization and the audience used to be a one-way setup, but social media “democratized” not just the exchange of opinions but bashing as well.

“The downside of our situation is that everybody can now chime in on just about anything. But it also exposes journalists to attacks and unfair comments that tend to undermine our work. The bandwagon effect is an effective way for our detractors to gang up on us. One nasty comment against us could trigger a flood of reactions from similar minded netizens. Such is what happened to cases of red-tagging of journalists – one false accusation ballooned to the wholesale vilification of our colleagues,” she added.

Panay News editor Glenda Tayona agreed with Ortega’s observations on online attacks against journalists, particularly red-tagging, online bashing, and gaslighting.

“Apart from the pressure of looking for and creating content, the more concerning aspect are attacks on our colleagues in the community. It’s stressful to read nasty comments on our reports but what is more painful are the gaslighting statements that could lead to bodily injury to journalists,” Tayona said.

Apart from online bashing, attacks against journalists have become more sophisticated, like what happened to several news organizations that were part of Facts First PH.

For one, lawfare or the use of laws to intimidate news organizations has become a norm in the Philippines.

The 2022 Digital News Report of Reuters described how a former presidential communications official threatened that “the government’s anticommunist task force intended to take legal action against Rappler for allegedly spreading disinformation, as well as against Facebook for allowing Rappler and Vera Files ‘to abuse the immense powers’ of their designation as the platform’s third-party fact-checkers.”

Cyberattacks on news organizations and fact-checkers also became widespread, particularly in the lead up to the 2022 elections.

“Big and small news organisations were targets of what seemed to be coordinated distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that crippled their websites for hours, even days. Apart from Rappler and Vera Files, ABS-CBN, GMA News, CNN Philippines, Interaksyon, PressOnePH, and Mindanao Gold Star Daily were attacked; so were alternative news sites Bulatlat and Pinoy Media Center. Months earlier, the attacks against Bulatlat and another alternative site were traced to an IP address assigned to the Philippine Army. The country’s ranking in the World Press Freedom Index slipped further, by nine spots to 147th out of 180 countries,” the 2022 DNR described the Philippine situation.

Daily Guardian, which is also part of Facts First PH, also suffered DDoS attacks weeks before Filipinos went to the polling centers in May 2022. For three days, its website was inaccessible due to unusually heavy traffic to the site.

Infodemic 

At the height of the pandemic, Cagayan de Oro wasn’t exempt from the deluge of disinformation, from so-called alternative cure against the COVID-19 virus to fake announcements of quarantines.

Community journalists were in a quandary as to where best to source information about the pandemic because most people in government, including the Department of Health-10, were also in the dark and appeared disorganized in disseminating information.

Online trolls, of course, jumped into the chaos.

These fake news articles on the pandemic flooded local Facebook pages. Many of the community journalists had petty arguments with their family members.

“I even have arguments with my mother because she believes in almost anything she reads on Facebook,” said Gallardo.

Exacerbating this anxiety-inducing events on social media, community journalists were also unsure of their job security because many legacy news outlets, especially print medium, shut down. Freelance reporters and contractual media workers bore the brunt financially, especially those who lost their jobs due to closures as their media outlets declared bankruptcy.

Long-time sports reporter Lynde Salgados was so depressed when his outlet SunStar Cagayan de Oro Daily declared bankruptcy on June 30, 2020, that he stopped writing altogether for at least two years.

“This is the only craft I love and am good at. How am I going to feed my family after this?” Salgados said.

Salgados’ editor-in-chief Pamela Orias dreaded the thought of their news outlet shutting down.

“I have no other job options,” Orias said in a Gold Star Daily article. After 25 years, Sunstar-CDO decided to stop running the presses.

Pushing back

Amid the challenges they are facing, community journalists in the Visayas and Mindanao have banded together to reclaim their place on social media platforms.

Most news houses in the provinces are taking the cudgels in fighting for their place in the digital platforms.

Gallardo said it is high time for journalists to push back against disinformation and the attacks.

“The democratic aspirations of the republic will never come to fruition if its people continue to refuse to practice it,” Gallardo said.

Former journalist Joseph Ben Deveza, who now teaches a communication subject in Xavier University’s Development Communication under its College of Agriculture, said the problem started when the legacy news media failed to nip in the bud the fake news the so-called influencers and trolls spread on various social media platforms.

“It is understandable why we were caught flat-footed. Most, if not all, of the handlers of these trolls and influencers used to be our colleagues,” Deveza said.

He said these former community journalists who have “sold their skill sets to the highest bidder” should not only be made to account, but also be called out at every outset in their disinformation attempts.

For his part, Gallardo said community journalists should get back their bearings as the source of vetted and corroborated information in any medium.

“Even if there are new platforms, journalism has not changed. I refuse to believe that the discipline of every newsroom across the country can be defeated by these grammar and truth-challenged influencers,” he said.

“Community journalists must be at the forefront in the fight against disinformation,” Gallardo added. – Rappler.com

Cong Corrales and Francis Allan Angelo are Aries Rufo Journalism fellows.

Last of 2 parts

AT A GLANCE

• Drug-related killings continue under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos Jr. but obtaining official numbers from the government remains difficult.
• In a response to Rappler’s freedom of information request, the Philippine National Police said “seven (7) people [were] killed for illegal drugs from June 2022″ to April 2023. But the Dahas project monitored at least 100 killed in anti-illegal drug operations as of May 31, 2023, while then-PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. in November 2022 said that 46 people were already killed by police.
• While the violence de-escalated under Marcos, political scientist Sol Iglesias said the administration’s biggest complicity is institutionalizing impunity by continuing to shield the crimes committed under Duterte.

MANILA, Philippines – Silence was golden for President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. when it came to the bloody legacy of his predecessor Rodrigo Duterte – at least for the most part of the 2022 presidential campaign and the eventual first few months of his presidency. 

The second Marcos president, after all, benefited from the political power of the foul-mouthed former Davao City mayor who ordered the slaughter of thousands of Filipinos in the name of his anti-illegal drugs campaign. He also ran, and won, with then-presidential daughter Sara Duterte as his vice president. 

But in May 2023, in an event thousands of kilometers away from the Philippines, Marcos acknowledged the killings during the Duterte administration. Speaking before the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he said that a “focus on enforcement” resulted in “abuses by certain elements in the government.” 

It was the most explicit statement Marcos has made on the widespread killings committed during Duterte’s war on drugs, even as he refused to assess the campaign’s entirety. In previous instances, like in September 2022, he had only talked about taking on a different approach because enforcement “only gets you so far.”

In contrast, Marcos’ Interior Secretary Benjamin “Benhur” Abalos Jr. said during the early days of the administration that the “war against drugs will be as intensive as before on the basis of my oath as a public official in accordance with the Constitution.”

Almost one year into the Marcos administration, how does the situation compare to the violence under Duterte? There are different ways to look into this. First is to assess the landscape using data. 

There have been no consistent data releases under the Marcos administration covering drug-related killings, unlike during his predecessor’s time when the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) and the Philippine National Police (PNP) publicly uploaded numbers online, specifically through the #RealNumbersPH platform on Facebook.

It is because of this “transparency” that we know that police claimed to have killed at least 6,252 people during anti-illegal drug operations between July 2022 and May 31, 2022. The death toll is estimated to rise to between 27,000 to 30,000 if victims of extrajudicial killings are included, according to independent monitoring by human rights groups.

Getting official government data on drug-related killings under Marcos has so far been difficult. The numbers provided by the PNP in the scant times that requests were successful are also significantly lower than those documented by other groups. 

Rappler has submitted two freedom of information (FOI) requests to the PNP for the number of individuals killed in anti-illegal drug operations. The PNP responded to the April 27 request on May 2. The information provided was in the form of a powerpoint presentation created by the PNP Drug Enforcement Group, the unit that leads the anti-illegal drug efforts of the national police. 

The file contained only specific cases of “drug personalities [who] died in police operations (DIPO)” and killed from January 2022 to April 2023. Subtracting the number of those killed before Marcos took office, the PNP presentation shows only two incidents.

Rappler again submitted another FOI request on May 5, this time to PDEA. But the agency referred our request to PNP, which responded on May 9 with a similar powerpoint presentation. 

This time, however, the last slide included plain text that said “seven (7) people killed for illegal drugs from June 2022 to present.” PNP DEG, in a response to a separate email, reiterated the same number. 

Rappler reached out to the PNP’s Public Information Office through both email and a text message to spokesperson Police Colonel Jean Fajardo on Tuesday, June 6, to confirm this information. We have yet to receive a response as of publication. 

If we go by the “seven people killed for illegal drugs,” this death toll is lower than what was provided by the same agency in November 2022. In a forum organized by the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, then-PNP chief Rodolfo Azurin Jr. said that 46 people were killed in anti-illegal drug operations – 32 killed by police and 14 by PDEA agents.

This number is also significantly lower than the death toll monitored by Dahas, a project of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s Third World Studies Center. 

From July 1, 2022 to May 31, 2023, at least 100 people were killed by state agents in anti-illegal drug operations alone. The number rises to 132 to include victims killed not in anti-illegal drug operations but later found to have links to illegal drugs.  

This is part of a bigger death toll of at least 309 drug-related killings within the same period, to include those killed by non-state agents and unidentified perpetrators, based on the project’s monitoring. At least 134 killings were committed from January 1 to May 31, 2023 alone, with 60 carried out by state agents.

The Commission on Human Rights (CHR) was also able to document and investigate 13 cases of killings in government operations. The constitutional body mandated to probe state abuses, however, clarified that this number does not “reflect the total number of alleged drug-related extrajudicial killings” it is investigating, and that CHR regional offices may have more numbers. 

Human rights lawyer Catherine Lopez, research and policy development coordinator at Initiatives for Dialogue and Empowerment through Alternative Legal Services (IDEALS), said the lack of transparency and withholding of information appears to be a “tactic” of the Marcos administration. 

By not releasing data consistently, it’s as if the government is taking on an “out of sight, out of mind” approach where continued killings are not discussed. 

“It’s our right to have these records so why does it seem like we have to beg for them to release these information that we have a right to access in the first place?” she told Rappler. “That’s not acceptable.” 

As an organization, IDEALS has helped document cases of drug war killings under Duterte. Lopez said that there’s not much difference between the two administrations when it comes to challenges faced by families in obtaining documents and reports related to their slain loved ones. 

Marcos’ crime of impunity

Based on the numbers, it is safe to say that there’s a de-escalation of killings. The situation during the first year of Marcos is not as violent as Duterte’s who, by his 6th month in office in January 2017, already saw more than 2,500 deaths in police operations alone.

Still, the killings continue despite rhetoric from Marcos that he will try a less violent approach, unlike his predecessor. In the poorest communities in Metro Manila, families that Rappler spoke with reported not much change. There are still people killed by the police, but they’ve noticed that significantly more are being killed by unidentified individuals. 

Families who have lost loved ones during Duterte’s reign of violence continue to fear that they will lose more under Marcos. And these are on top of existing harassment and intimidation they experience as they try to seek justice. 

Carlos Conde, senior researcher for Human Rights Watch (HRW), tagged the disconnect between Marcos’ statements and the situation on the ground as a “political balancing act” as he tries to appease the international community. These include foreign governments that Duterte has demonized, if not outright insulted, during his term as president. 

“Marcos is doing the barests of bare minimums, because Duterte set the bar so low,” Conde said. “My sense is that the low-level violence serves a purpose within the police, but it is not outrageous enough to put Marcos on the spot.” 

But at the same time, he believes that Marcos will probably not make a “dramatic turn” by either ending the drug war nor even launching a genuine investigation into the killings. 

Is it because Marcos is as hungry for blood as Duterte, the man accused of expanding nationwide the operations and style of the notorious Davao Death Squad (DDS) that killed thousands in his turf, Davao City? Probably not. 

If Marcos has his way, Conde said, he probably would want the violence to stop “because the drug war is not his fight.”

“His main motivation is to rehabilitate the Marcos name and for them to keep their riches, but he doesn’t want to offend Duterte and his base, which Marcos still counts on for support,” Conde said, adding that it’s best to watch out for what happens “nearer to the 2028 elections.” 

Marcos, however, is not at all blameless and is not just caught between a rock and a hard place. 

Sol Iglesias, assistant professor of political science at the University of the Philippines Diliman, said that the biggest issue here is impunity that continues to be promoted under the Marcos administration. 

While there is decreased violence, Marcos is still liable for not ensuring justice for the thousands of victims of Duterte’s war on drugs. 

“When a successive government continues to shield the crimes or potential crimes of the previous administration, that’s already institutionalizing impunity,” she said. “That is the biggest complicity of the Marcos administration [and] it’s something that we just simply can’t ignore because the subsequent president has a duty to the victims.” 

The Marcos government may have taken steps to cleanse the ranks of the PNP, including those alleged to have links to illegal drugs, but it is yet to hold accountable cops, including Duterte himself, who killed, or allowed the killing of, individuals. 

Only a few have been convicted in drug war-related killings, including the police involved in the deaths of 17-year-old Kian delos Santos, Carl Angelo Arnaiz, and Reynaldo “Kulot” de Guzman. 

If Marcos was serious about giving justice, his administration would have launched a “massive expansion of investigations” and also would not oppose developments at the International Criminal Court (ICC), which is presently investigating possible crimes against humanity committed under Duterte.

“We should be very skeptical and wary of [Marcos’] rhetoric and sort of positioning itself as very different from the violence of Duterte because all the underlying root causes of the violence and facilitating factors of the violence are being aided and abetted by the Marcos administration,” Iglesias said. 

Must Read

Under Marcos, can Duterte be held accountable for drug war killings?

Moving forward

As the strategy of Marcos’ anti-illegal drug campaign remains vague at the very least, it is important that there will be no let-up in the monitoring of drug-related killings. 

Continuity requires dedication not just from one group, but a consolidation of efforts across civil society organizations and the media. But what’s more important, according to Lopez of IDEALS, is giving adequate support to monitoring done by communities themselves, especially in the face of intense intimidation from state agents. 

Many human rights groups Rappler spoke with over the years count members of communities as always the first ones to record and report incidents of killings that are happening around them.

“Give [groups] visibility because visibility can secure them,” Lopez said. “Help them be more physically and psychologically secure, they can move freer if they know there’s support from the people.” 

While documentation contributes to history, she cautioned that it unfortunately cannot measure the extent of the damage done. While the death toll is heavily reported on, the impact on children and future generations, including the normalization of violence, has yet to be fully seen.

“What kind of generation is now growing? We are creating a generation of people who are numb to the violence, who think that this is normal,” she said. 

As the human rights situation should be monitored under Marcos, the quest for justice for the thousands killed under Duterte continues. All eyes are on the International Criminal Court as it is expected to decide on the appeal lodged by the Philippine government against the resumption of the probe into the drug war killings. 

As the public awaits the next ICC developments, other steps taken should also ensure that the impunity under Marcos and Duterte are not swept under the rug in the face of renewed or invigorated international relations. 

One of the biggest examples of this is the upcoming expiration of the Generalized Scheme of Preferences Plus (GSP+), or trade perks enjoyed by the Philippines from the European Union. At the center of this scheme is the obligation to uphold human rights standards. Groups both here and abroad are calling on the EU Commission to not renew the Philippines’ status. 

While there is still no solid indication about the fate of the country’s trade perks with the EU, there are signs that foreign governments are pleased with Marcos. 

“More than castigating Marcos for not doing much as far as human rights is concerned, we should call out the international community for being content with tokenistic approaches, for doing so little and being happy with it,” HRW’s Conde said. 

Ultimately, Duterte’s violent policies and disregard for human rights make it easier for future administrations to unleash their own brand of terror in the Philippines. According to political scientist Iglesias, failing to address the impact of Duterte will just make the cycle go on forever.

“Without the genuine restoration of respect for human rights, including in the form of justice for victims, the risk in our country is that the bloody six years could happen again, whether or not under the Marcos administration, but maybe in the future,” she said. – Rappler.com 

Rating: FALSE 

Why we fact-checked this: The claim is implied in a YouTube video with a thumbnail image that bears the text “Binawi ng gobyerno. Ito ang ayaw ipalabas ng bayarang media.” (Recovered by the government. This is what the paid media agencies don’t want to show). The thumbnail shows President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. along with the logos of Meralco, Maynilad, the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation, Land Transportation Office, and the Social Security System.

The title of the video also makes reference to a “sudden order” approved by the President. As of writing, the video has 30,000 views and 89 comments.

What the video shows: The video does not provide any evidence to support its claim. There are also no official announcements regarding any supposed government takeover of the two companies.

Instead, the video features the National ICT Month kickoff ceremony and launch of the e-Gov PH Super App held in Malacañang last June 2. In his speech, Marcos said that the government needs to adopt new technologies to compete on the global stage and to digitize government processes to improve service delivery. The e-government and e-governance acts are among the President’s 19 priority bills in his State of the Nation Address.

Privately owned: According to its website, Maynilad is “managed by Maynilad Water Holdings Company, Inc. – a joint venture between Metro Pacific Investments Corporation (MPIC), DMCI Holdings, Inc. (DMCI) and Marubeni Corporation.” 

Meanwhile, Meralco is privately owned, with Beacon Electric Asset Holdings, Inc., JG Summit Holdings, Inc., and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. as its major shareholders. 

There are no recent reports regarding any proposals or plans to take ownership of either company. In 2019, former president Rodrigo Duterte threatened to take control of Maynilad over water shortages. — Jezreel Ines/ Rappler

Keep us aware of suspicious Facebook pages, groups, accounts, websites, articles, or photos in your network by contacting us at factcheck@rappler.com. You may also report dubious claims to #FactsFirstPH tipline by messaging Rappler on Facebook or Newsbreak via Twitter direct message. You may also report through our Viber fact check chatbot. Let us battle disinformation one Fact Check at a time.

Informed sources indicated that the appeals chamber of the ICC may come out with a decision in the next two to three months on whether the Prosecutor’s investigation into the estimated 27,000 killings in former President Rodrigo Duterte’s drug war and the Davao Death Squad is valid.

If the appeals chamber decides in favor of the Philippine government, the prosecutor has to close its investigation. If the decision goes against the government, the prosecutor may start to request for an arrest warrant if it finds sufficient grounds to do so.

It was the Philippine government that filed an appeal, and whatever the decision is will be final, at least for this issue. “The appeals chamber is the highest chamber at the ICC, so there is no appeal of the decision of the appeals chamber,” ICC Spokesperson Fadi el Abdallah told Rappler in an interview at the court on June 8.

But if, for example, the government loses this round, “it would not preclude them from providing material in the future that could warrant [another] deferral,” Maria Elena Vignoli, senior counsel of the Human Rights Watch international justice program, told Rappler.

This ping-pong on legal processes may be the same complicated process as in the Philippines’ local system, except that the ICC has one fundamental limitation: it does not have police powers.

Even if arrest warrants are issued, the matter of who will make the arrest is a big problem. South Africa, an ICC member country, has now given immunity to Russian president Vladimir Putin when he goes there this August for the Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) summit. The ICC issued an arrest warrant against Putin over child deportation in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

ICC’s El Abdallah said immunity is a usual diplomatic custom for all visiting heads of state, and that “there is a clear framework in the ICC Rome Statute that allows for these types of matters to be dealt with.”

The ICC’s track record in enforcing warrants, however, is not cause for optimism. If a suspect is not arrested, no trial will happen.

Play Video

Prospects for the Philippines

Prospects for the Philippines are both good and bad. Good because former prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, who opened the investigation, was bogged down by sanctions from Donald Trump before, and that was seen to have affected the pace of action in the Philippine case.

Karim Khan, the new prosecutor, has been moving quicker than his predecessor and has appointed deputy prosecutors to help speed up the process. In just one year, Khan has managed to both reopen the investigation into the Philippines and convince the appeals chamber not to suspend the process while waiting for its decision.

But the reality is that the Office of the Prosecutor has a limited budget, funded only by voluntary contributions from state parties. It also has its hands full on its special Ukraine investigation.

“We cannot put all the hope for justice in an international court that’s under-resourced and that’s right now preoccupied with what its principals and donors want it to be preoccupied with,” said Ruben Carranza, a Filipino international justice lawyer, at a forum by 1Sambayan on May 4.

“We were worried just slightly. But movement is better than no movement at all,” Kristina Conti, lawyer for a group of drug war widows and an ICC accredited assistant counsel, told Rappler in a Zoom interview from Manila on June 10.

The complicated treaty

A special feature of the ICC is complementarity. It means that it will not intervene if it is convinced that the Philippines’ own justice system is able and willing to do the investigation. 

Prosecutor Khan has been insisting that  the Philippine government has not given substantial proof of a working justice system. The other consideration for complementarity is “same person, same conduct” test, meaning, the national investigation must be looking at the same person and substantially the same conduct being investigated by the ICC. If the government passes the test, the ICC need not proceed as state investigations are given more primacy.

Colombia, for example, is a model of complementarity because its creation of its own peace tribunals convinced the ICC prosecutor to close the investigation.

Sarah Bafadhel, the British external counsel hired by the Philippine Office of the Solicitor General (OSG), has expertise on complementarity.

Among others, the appeal argues that the complementarity tests apply only to concrete cases, and not the Philippine situation at the investigation level. Beyond that, the appeal argues that the justice system is working.

That claim, however, is disputed heavily by the local human rights community. For one, the proof submitted to the ICC includes proceedings that are not directly related to the drug war. There is also little movement in the investigation of the Davao Death Squad.

“At least for the purposes of the appeal, the argument is that yes, they are not criminal proceedings, but they lead to, or allow for investigation and identification of potential perpetrators, potential victims and potential witnesses,” Bafadhel told Rappler in an interview from The Hague on June 9.

“For the victims, if you ask them, who do you want prosecuted? Common among the names is Rodrigo Duterte, and none of these proceedings, civil and criminal, lead up to the name of Duterte and even Bato,” Conti said. Bato is Senator Ronald “Bato” Dela Rosa, Duterte’s former police chief and the architect of the drug war.

Must Read

Philippines’ lawyer at ICC: ‘A good defense is part of justice’

In defense of the ICC

The ICC also suffers from a sustained disinformation campaign, mostly from its reputation of not being able to punish Western leaders. When Bensouda opened the investigation, a report on Dutch portal Justiceinfo.net on her role in the Gambian regime got traffic from the Philippines, and was distributed by Duterte bloggers to discredit the prosecution.

“You are certainly dealing with people that have some kind of power, and it means you are upsetting some people just by existing and conducting your job. It is totally unacceptable to put out fake news about an institution seeking justice, and at the same time, it seems to me it is unavoidable in our current work,” said El Abdallah.

The ICC is also seen as a potential political tool in the power play of the fragile alliance between Duterte and President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. The Marcos government, after all, is engaging to an extent with the court in this appeal process. Marcos also sometimes gives interviews where he drops criticisms here and there on the abuses in Duterte’s drug war.

“The ICC is a politicized court and this is politics in the international level,” said Carranza in the 1Sambayan forum.

In the same forum, Filipino judge Raul Pangalangan, who retired as an ICC judge in May 2021, said: “We don’t have a police to carry out our orders, but historically, we have found ways to carry out our jurisdiction even without that.”

Drug war victims are always cautioned against high hopes on a process as convoluted as the ICC, but Conti said: “At the moment, it is the most viable option; in fact, it seems it is the only viable option.” – Rappler.com

This reporting was supported by the Journalists For Justice