Not so smart fake news

Fake news is proliferating not only on social media, but also in traditional and mainstream media. One such fake news going around claims that Smart Communications will stop operating by March next year because its original 25-year franchise issued in 1992 will not be renewed by Congress.

Obviously, this lie being peddled by certain groups is meant to sow disinformation and confusion among Smart’s 69 million subscribers. These false reports even allege that the firm has failed to offer at least 30 percent of its shares of stock to the public (a requirement under the Public Telecommunications Policy Act of 1995) – which is supposedly why Congress has refused to renew its franchise.

This type of news is actually ridiculous because Smart is owned by the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Company – a publicly listed firm. So when PLDT makes a public report about its financial status, Smart’s profits and revenues are consolidated with those of the parent company, which is PLDT.

According to the House of Representatives’ Committee on Legislative Franchises, Smart need not comply with the public ownership requirement as long as it is owned by a listed public company like PLDT, since the spirit of the public ownership requirement has been fulfilled through the listing of its parent company.

One can only wonder why some individuals are peddling such lies about the country’s leading wireless services provider, but a good guess could be stock manipulation. Another is to create panic among subscribers and compel them to transfer to other providers.  Besides, it’s not as if Smart will just abruptly stop operating and terminate its services if – under the worst-case scenario – the franchise remains pending in Congress after the scheduled March adjournment.

Can you just imagine how chaotic it would be if half the country’s population woke up to find that their cellular or mobile data services had been cut overnight? And what about such top dollar earners like the Business Process Outsourcing sector that is totally dependent on data and mobile services to operate? Surely, this government would not be so reckless or foolhardy to allow such a disaster to happen because it will definitely impact the economy.

Irresponsible intrigue

When it comes to the issue of our national security, reports such as the one claiming that former US Ambassador to the Philippines Philip Goldberg authored a “blueprint to undermine” President Duterte must be verified and the facts carefully checked. Allegations that the former US envoy outlined a so-called “list” of scenarios and strategies to undermine the president and set the scene for his eventual ouster with a timeline of one and a half year are not only irresponsible intrigues, they are simply ridiculous.

In the first place, if such a “blueprint” had really been written by a former US envoy of the United States, this kind of information or communiqué will be highly classified and not something that could easily be leaked even by a “highly placed source.”

If one could remember, speculations about the US plotting the ouster of President Duterte because of his friendliness with China started circulating just before Ambassador Goldberg ended his tour of duty in the Philippines. The US diplomat described this as “absurd,” saying the US respects the Philippines’ democracy and that the bond between the two countries is unbreakable for several reasons, among them the fact that there are close to four million Filipino-Americans in the US, while a couple of hundred thousand Americans reside in the Philippines. Any statement claiming the United States is involved in such a plan is “not right,” Goldberg said.

The “blueprint” supposedly called for a combination of socio-economic and political moves, including business pressure to bring President Duterte down on his knees and remove him from office — which many say is highly unlikely considering that a lot of American companies do business in the country.

Part of the plan would be to drive a wedge between the President and “defenders of the rule of law” by highlighting leftist demands to free all political prisoners as a precondition to a formal peace agreement. The President has put his foot down and refused to release 130 political prisoners serving time for various crimes, reiterating there will not be a substantial release of political prisoners unless the left signs a bilateral ceasefire agreement.

In Washington, the State Department had already denied the existence of such a “blueprint,” with Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel saying the US respects the sovereignty of the Philippines and the democratic choices made by Filipinos in choosing their leader.

“Our ongoing aid programs and defense cooperation demonstrate our commitment to building Philippine institutions and to the Philippines’ success as a country and within ASEAN,” Russel said, adding that America’s relationship with the country is broad and that the United States’ alliance with the Philippines is one of the “most enduring and important relationships in the Asia-Pacific region” and has been “a cornerstone of stability for over 70 years.”

Malacañang reacted to the report by pointing out that President Duterte continues to enjoy the trust of Filipinos who appreciate all he is doing to improve their lot in life as seen in recent surveys that showed the President maintaining an “excellent” trust rating.

In any case, we expect this “oust Duterte” political intrigue to continue since the US has always been a “good story” for conspiracy theories about supposed destabilization moves in the Philippines. Even if there is an iota of truth regarding the said “blueprint,” an ouster plot will very likely not prosper in this day and age with social media making it much harder to subvert the will of the people. Intrigues such as this are not only irresponsible; they are also unproductive.

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