Image Source: Rappler

Philippine democracy is in great danger once again now that the two families who benefited the most from disinformation – the Marcoses and Dutertes, are in power and have turned against one another. As both camps sling disinformation against each other, the polarization ultimately sows distrust in democratic institutions.

Disinformation—the deliberate spread of false information with the intention to propagate a certain narrative—has become a powerful tool in Philippine politics beyond being a buzzword. We have seen how disinformation wields great power as the Marcos-Duterte tandem rose to power on the back of a relentless disinformation campaign. Promising a so-called “new society,” their ascent was propelled by the very propaganda machinery Rodrigo Duterte had perfected. Disinformation has turned the same nation that once ousted a dictator to be the same nation to bring his son back into power.

The Top Peddler of Disinformation
Instead of fighting against disinformation, the state has actually been one of the primary propagators of disinformation mainly because of the nature of disinformation – it helps the state shift narratives in their favor to complement the status quo. With the rise of the digital age, disinformation has now become much more complex. Disinformation can be spread faster than before and with some guise of anonymity. One of the earliest large-scale cases of digital disinformation was the Cambridge Analytica scandal, where social media manipulation influenced elections worldwide. Reports allege that Marcos Jr.’s camp is also involved in this as they consulted with Cambridge Analytica affiliates to rebrand his family’s image.

In the case of the Philippines, it was during the 2016 elections and under Rodrigo Duterte’s regime that disinformation became so widespread. Duterte tactically planned his assault of disinformation. He first took out mainstream media outlets, particularly those critical of his policies, by eroding their credibility and labeling journalists as “biased”. This pushed people to think of journalists as fake news peddlers. Duterte eventually boxed the mainstream media out as exemplified in the cases of the shutdown of ABS-CBN and the charges against Rappler. With mainstream media out of the picture, the state now had a certain degree of monopoly of information.

With the conditions ripe and perfected by Rodrigo Duterte – mainstream media outlets deemed unreliable, social media influencers being the new “reliable” sources of information, Marcos Jr. only had to adapt this system of disinformation and echo rhetorics to feed social media influencers. These false rhetorics of a “new society” and cleansing the family name of their crimes against humanity under Marcos Sr.’s regime would eventually be picked up by troll farms, social media influences, and vloggers.

The State Fighting Disinformation?

Over recent months as the Philippines witnessed the falling out of the Marcos-Duterte alliance, we have seen Marcos Jr. and the Malacanang Palace seemingly leaning towards combating disinformation – the very same machinery that once catapulted them back in power. In February of 2025, the House of Representatives started probing into the proliferation of fake news by establishing a tri-committee to investigate social media influencers and bloggers; most of the personalities invited however were known to be Pro-Duterte bloggers and influencers.

After the International Criminal Court’s arrest of Former President Rodrigo Duterte, social media platforms were once again swarmed with a flurry of fake news and disinformation. Disinformation ranged from portraying the mass murderer as the victim of an unlawful arrest to faking videos of supposed rallies of support and even outright attacking legal institutions such as the International Criminal Court. Troll accounts were also seen to be echoing the exact same string of text implying the arrest as a kidnapping in the hours leading up to Duterte’s arrest. In response to the hurricane of disinformation, the Malacanang Palace strengthened the need to combat disinformation.

While these instances may seem to paint the Philippine government to be fighting against disinformation, the context of their actions speak louder. The government is only problematizing disinformation now that the Marcos-Duterte alliance is in shambles and Marcos Jr. could easily be targeted by disinformation from the camp of Dutertes, the primary architects of disinformation. The Malacanang Palace and the House of Representatives’ reactive response to disinformation tell us that they are not really combating disinformation as a whole – Instead, they only combat disinformation that threatens their political legitimacy. Their fight against discrimination would not target narratives that don’t go against their agenda no matter how distorted the truth in those is.

The Power is Among Us

As the state combats disinformation for its own agenda and media outlets are still continuously being undermined, it is now upon us to fight against disinformation. We must echo fact-checking campaigns by media outlets and institutions such as VERA Files and Agence France Presse that call out disinformation campaigns.

Troll armies are hard to dismantle hence we must organize from the grassroots and target those who fall victim to disinformation and spread it themselves. Disinformation victims and propagators are less likely to see fact-checking news articles because social media algorithms prioritize content that aligns with users’ existing beliefs and engagement patterns. Since disinformation often generates high interaction through shares and comments, platforms amplify misleading content while deprioritizing corrective information that receives less engagement. As a result, those who frequently spread falsehoods become trapped in echo chambers where fact-checks are either absent or dismissed as biased. Hence, we must penetrate these echo chambers and continuously engage them with facts and corrective information while keeping in mind our objective of changing their minds and not attacking them directly. Apart from this, fact-checking drives must also be brought beyond the digital screens as the typical marites are still prevalent and are often trusted by locals to be sources of information.

Just as the people power revolution of 1986 was in the hands of the people and grassroot organizing, it is upon the Filipino people now to once again save democracy. Democracy in the Philippines is being buried under an avalanche of lies and fake news, and we all have shovels in our hands. The question is: will we fight to unearth the truth, or will we take part in burying democracy alive?