Fake news blamed for lower Marcos Jr. trust, approval scores

MANILA, Philippines — The prevalence of fake news is to blame for the drop in President Marcos’ approval and trust ratings in the latest Pulse Asia survey, Malacañang said yesterday.

“It reflects the influence of fake news that is spreading,” Presidential Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro said in Filipino during a Palace briefing.

“So if these people gave their opinions (in the surveys), it was probably a result of fake news,” Castro said.

The Palace press officer cited a Reuters report, which stated that “the level of coordinated disinformation seen in the Philippines was far above the typical seven to 10 percent range of online conversation globally about highly sensitive or polarizing issues.”

Castro also downplayed the survey results, saying the answers to pollsters by 2,400 respondents do not reflect the sentiments of over 100 million Filipinos.

Asked whether the President and his administration were alarmed by the Pulse Asia findings, Castro said the President “will still implement what is in the law and what is right and not what a survey says.”

The Pulse Asia survey, conducted from March 23 to 29, showed Marcos’ approval rating dropping to 25 percent from 42 percent in February.

In terms of trust, the President also obtained a rating of 25 percent, down from 43 percent in February.

The poll was conducted weeks after the Marcos administration surrendered former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court to stand trial in The Hague for crimes against humanity over the deaths of thousands in his so-called war on drugs.

The Reuters report released this month found that nearly one-third of X accounts discussing the arrest Duterte were fake.

Castro said when Secretary Jay Ruiz took charge of the Presidential Communications Office – the government’s lead communications arm – in February this year, Marcos’ first directive was to curtail fake news.

“Since day one that we have been appointed, we were tasked to do our job, to spread the truth and not fake news,” she said.

Measures to intensify the fight against fake news or misinformation especially during the campaign season were among the matters tackled by Marcos with various government agencies, including the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), at Malacañang yesterday, according to Castro. – Janvic Mateo, Rainier Allan Ronda