News Roundup 29 November 2022
Nov 29, 2022 • 8 min Read
Robredo: World watching PH, intrigued by misinformation nightmare | INQUIRER.NET – The misinformation and disinformation challenges facing the Philippines have attracted the attention of people worldwide who hope to find ideas for combating their own issues, former vice president Leni Robredo said on Tuesday. Robredo, the keynote speaker during the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung’s Solutions Conference on Fighting Fake News, Misinformation, and Disinformation, revealed the massive number of requests for her to talk in the academe was due to interest in the country’s state in terms of disinformation. The former vice president has given numerous presentations to academics in the United States and around the world, including accepting an invitation to become a Hauser Leader at the Harvard Kennedy School. “These invitations are a clear indication that the eyes of many around the world are on the Philippines — they want to understand how we arrived at the situation we are in right now and why they want to see what lessons can be learned from our experiences — and from there perhaps apply the same lessons to their own contexts,” Robredo said. “They are asking if we see a way forward and to show them this way. I wish we know the solutions to these problems. Those whom we have engaged have shown particular interest in misinformation and influence operations in the Philippines. We are, after all considered, unfortunately, ground zero for such phenomena,” she added. According to Robredo, people have labeled the Philippines as a petri dish for entities who weaponize social media to their advantage. “What others call us is a petri dish for those who weaponize social media to spread lies, control the flow of information, erode our trust in each other and in our institutions, polarize society, and dismantle the structures for meaningful public discourse. It’s saddening, isn’t it?” she added. Robredo elaborated on the research into misinformation and disinformation in the Philippines conducted by sociology professors Jonathan Ong of the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Nicole Curato of the University of Canberra. She relayed that the study showed a worrying trend — that there is a concerted effort with some public relations (PR) teams to push the agenda of politicians. “Professor Jonathan and his colleagues unmasked an entire industry that has exploited these conditions to push forward political agendas. The results of the research are saddening […] Number one, some advertising and PR executives of some boutique PR consulting firms — some, not all, more is not involved — are the ones who engage with political actors,” she said. “Number two, mid-level operators who execute strategies and distill them into messages, this is the second level. And the third level, the rank-and-file army ng trolls, each with several fake accounts — we know this — who apply their creative energies to distribute these messages across the online spaces […] They identified worrying new trends — the intensity, the volume, and the sophistication of these architects have reached unprecedented heights,” she added. Robredo ran for president in the 2022 national elections but lost to the eventual winner, President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. However, many pundits believe that while there was no massive fraud in the polls, the campaign period was laden with misinformation and disinformation, especially over social media. A study released last February 2022 showed that Robredo was the biggest victim of disinformation efforts, with Marcos being the biggest gainer from misleading social media posts.
Hontiveros: Immigration officials linked to trafficking of Pinoys to Myanmar for crypto scam | PHILSTAR.COM – Just like in 2020’s pastillas scandal, it was personnel of the Bureau of Immigration who were linked to the Filipinos trafficked and forced to be part of a Chinese syndicate’s All-Filipino group of trained scammers, Sen. Risa Hontiveros said Tuesday. This comes as the latest in the senator’s expose of a large-scale human trafficking operation by the Chinese mafia that she earlier said primarily recruited Filipinos for their English-speaking skills and enticed them with high-paying telemarketing jobs abroad. The plot gets thicker. And not only does the plot thicken, it looks like we have heard this plot before. It feels like I have déjà vu,” Hontiveros said in Filipino in her opening statement at Tuesday’s hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality. “It seems that the Chinese Mafia syndicate is not the only one to blame here, although they are the main villain, there are also immigration employees involved. It’s like Pastillas Part 2, but worse and more intense.” It was also Hontiveros who unearthed what came to be known as the pastillas scheme in the 18th Congress, under which immigration officers allegedly received P10,000 in grease money, rolled in paper resembling the wrapper of the popular milk-based confection, for each Chinese national allowed to breeze through passport checks in the country’s airports. Ninoy Aquino International Airport General Manager Lauro Francisco was also invited to the hearing, Hontiveros said, but the former sent a communication to the committee secretary saying he would not be able to make it after he caught COVID-19. At the Senate panel’s hearing, officials of the immigration bureau were asked: How could its employees’ participation in the operation go on undetected once again? BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that the passengers were given a fake monthly pass stamped with the logo of the Manila International Airport Authority, which manages the terminals of the NAIA. “The modus is, obviously, they have the [passengers] check in first and they don’t let them leave. They’re given a fake name, an ID, and stamped boarding pass. And they meet them outside the airport with the agent,” he said, citing the bureau’s internal investigations. He added that the agent they were looking into was male, tall, with slim complexion, and wearing black shorts and a blue cap. So how were these fake passes allowed to slip through unintercepted? “I believe that is now the responsibility of the airport security,” he said in Filipino. Hontiveros then presented screenshots of text messages with supposed recruiters. One OFW who sensed something was off refused to get on the flight and had the tickets canceled eventually discovered that his passport was also voided. Upon telling the recruiter this, the unnamed OFW was told: “Once you’ve calmed down, call me. That is voided now because you canceled your flight. And the one who voided that is an employee of the [Ninoy Aquino International Airport] which is an immigration officer who signed off on it.” Hontiveros also presented a photo of the fake pass, which gives the passengers access to the delivery bay under the company name: “WHSMITH Comfort Food.” Tansingco was not able to answer questions about the supposed company. Hontiveros on Tuesday presented two such overseas Filipino workers who were roped into the trafficking scam and eventually rescued: Alias “Baby” and Alias “Paulo”, both of whom were scammed with offers of call center and customer service jobs based in Thailand supposedly offering up to P50,000 in salary. Baby in her affidavit submitted to Hontiveros’ office told of a longwinding journey to get to her new employers. First, they took a plane from Manila to Zamboanga, where they spent three days. Then they took a ship to Tawi-Tawi, where they got on a speedboat to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia. They slept in a hut for a day until they were fetched in a van. On the road trip, they switched vehicles thrice until they arrived at Miri. There, they took a flight to Kuala Lumpur only to take another flight to Bangkok. Another long road trip in Bangkok, where they switched rides three times once again until they got on a riverboat, saw Baby finally arrive at the operation’s compound in a forest. Only then did she realize what she was brought in to do. She also corroborated the accounts of Rita, the first OFW who was rescued from the mafia’s operation in Myanmar. They were given a quota to scam foreigners, and the ones who couldn’t fulfill that quota were subjected to harsh treatment. Others were stabbed to death by their Chinese handlers.
Former energy chief Cusi indicted for libel over comments about Gatchalian | PHILSTAR.COM – Former Energy Secretary Alfonso Cusi, who sued more than a dozen journalists for libel in late 2021, has himself been indicted for libel over a statement on the department website criticizing Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian for a report alleging irregularities in the planned sale of shares in the Malampaya gas field. Cusi has been indicted by the Valenzuela City prosecutor’s office over the statement, which alleged that Gatchalian was biased against the deal and had “chosen to lend his ear to…adversarial business interests.” The senator, chair of the Senate Committee on Energy, had released a chairman’s report that recommended charges against Cusi and others for approving the deal Chevron and UC Malampaya. The Senate later adopted a resolution adopting the chairman’s report. In the same statement posted on the DOE website, Cusi said Gatchalian had “[fueled] a gross misunderstanding of the issues” by referring to the planned sale as defective and irregular, and that this was an insult to department officials and employees. In his counter-affidavit, Cusi had argued that Gatchalian should have filed his libel complaint in Pasay City instead of his home city of Valenzuela, but the prosecution said that the Cyber Crime Prevention Act allows the filing anywhere in the country. Gatchalian has been mayor and congressman of Valenzuela City and a brother, Weslie, is its current mayor. According to the prosecutor’s resolution, Cusi — who sued journalists across seven newsrooms over reports on a case filed against him at the Office of the Ombudsman over the planned Malampaya deal — also argued that Gatchalian, being a public officer, “should not be too onion-skinned.” The city prosecutor said Cusi’s claim that his statement was fair commentary was “flimsy” and said that the defamatory allegations the former energy secretary made were “anchored on false allegations.”
