NVDB005_-_CH_3.010._A_Misinformation_and_Disinformation_-_Marie_Antoinette-2

53 — DP Vol. 05

Regional Security Dilemma: Trends, Directions, and Illusion

On June 30, 2022, 12 noon, the new Philippine President is Ferdinand Marcos, Jr., son of the deceased dictator, Ferdinand Marcos, Sr.

How did Marcos, Jr. do it? Why did he win when he was almost always absent during sponsored Presidential debates, when he lies about his educational degree, when his family has billions of pesos of estate tax liabilities, when his family is affluent, largely because of ill-gotten wealth, and when his father’s Martial Law created a negative snowball effect on the country’s economy, governance, and human rights?

Aside from depending on traditional politicians, conducting a typical campaign with a transactional relationship with voters, and focusing on the message of “unity”, analysts point to Marcos Jr.’s strategy of propaganda, misinformation, and disinformation (PMD) as the main reason for his win (and the money and machinery required).

Analysts also suggest that the Marcoses’ PMD strategy wasn’t implemented a few months before elections. They invested in the long run by working on their comeback ever since Marcos, Jr. lost the Vice-Pres- idential race to Maria Leonor Gerona Robredo—or earlier—some say from the moment they were allowed to return to the Philippines, about 30 years ago.

The PMD strategy is apparent in the flooding of Marcos-related propaganda on Facebook, YouTube, and TikTok—a suitable approach in the Philippines, where an average Filipino spends about 10 hours each day on the internet and 76 million citizens are Facebook users (as of 2020).

Doing the on-the-ground PMD dissemination work are “troll armies”. But they don’t call themselves that. A study by the University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Jonathan Corpus Ong revealed that the troll machinery

is surprisingly sophisticated. An individual applies to a public relations (PR) firm and undergoes job interviews and tests. Once hired, they’re surprised that their client is a politician and they’re tasked to create fake accounts and memes. A strategist oversees their work and there’s no transparency in these transactions. A symbiotic relationship exists between the troll armies and pro-Marcos influencers or vloggers.

Their messages on these platforms are advantageous to the Marcoses. First, they portray the Martial Law era as a golden age, appealing to people’s nostalgia for a peaceful life. Second, they downplay, even deny, the massive plunder and human rights abuses during this period. Third, they create and spread fake news on what Marcos, Jr. will give Filipinos if he wins, such as a quiet and abundant life similar to his father’s time (which have been debunked), the distribution of 400,000 tons of (Tallano) gold, PHP 20 (around USD 0.30) per kilo rice (which Marcos, Jr. eventually said was merely an “aspiration”), etc.

Aside from improving the Marcoses’ image, their PMD strategy includes relentless bashing and the invention of stories about Marcos’s critics, particularly, Robredo. In a study by a fact-checking initiative, Tsek.ph, the largest beneficiary of fake news is Marcos, Jr., while the biggest victim of fake news is Robredo. Fact checkers flagged false or misleading claims about Robredo, including edited photos and videos to make it seem as if she is unintelligent, fake, or a “puppet” of a foreign country or a political family .

Why is there such certainty about these concerted efforts by the Marcoses, beside the existing online environment of dishonesty and hate? According to Cambridge Analytica whistleblower, Brittany Kaiser, the Marcoses requested them to rebrand their family image. Although the Marcoses eventually didn’t commission Cambridge Analytica, it’s logical that they

Marie Antoinette P. de Jesus is currently the Senior Program Manager for Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) Philip- pines. Prior to her work at KAS, she was a Political Economy Consultant for the Philippine Governance Advisory Team at the World Bank Office in the Philippines, Program Manager for the Asian Development Bank-Asian Institute of Management Knowledge Hub, and Research Officer at the International Rice Research Institute. She has authored chapters for and edited international and regional security publications. Her opinion pieces as an international development practitioner have been featured in Rappler. After earning her bachelor’s degree in Management Economics (Merit Scholar) from the Ateneo de Manila University and a brief stint in the corporate world, Tonette pursued her master’s degree in International Political Economy and Development, specializing in International and Development Economics, from Fordham University, where she received the Matteo Ricci Award for Outstanding Scholastic Achievement.