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House issues show cause orders to no-show vloggers at disinformation hearing

Published Feb 04, 2025 9:13 pm

The House of Representatives' tri-committee issued show cause orders to several social media personalities who skipped Tuesday's hearing on the spread of fake news and online disinformation.

During the first hearing on Feb. 4, multiple online content creators and influencers were supposed to discuss the problem of fake news online. However, 39 out of the 42 vloggers decided to skip the discussion.

Among those who skipped are former press secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles, former newscaster Jay Sonza, former National Task Force to End Local Communist Armed Conflict officials Lorraine Badoy and Jeffrey Celis, former actress Vivian Velez, political commentator Jun Abines, radio host Mark Anthony Lopez, Lord Byron Cristobal or Banat By, blogger Sass Rogando Sasot, and Krizette Chu.

The only ones who showed up in the hearing were columnist and Publicus Asia founder Malou Tiquia, vlogger Mark Louie Gamboa, and Atty. Rico Tomotorgo.

Why did they not attend?

House Joint Panel chairman Dan Fernandez briefly reviewed the excuse letters, in which some vloggers cited being abroad as their reason for not attending. Several others argued that the hearing violated their freedom of speech and was unconstitutional.

However, lawmakers rejected the excuse letters and issued show cause orders, demanding an explanation for their failure to participate.

Harry Roque, legal counsel for some of the influencers and vloggers, said the group is seeking legal redress from the Supreme Court regarding the issue.

These include Cruz-Angeles, Lopez, Chu, Badoy as well as Ernesto Abines Jr., Ethel Pineda Garcia, Jonathan Morales, Aeron Pena, Nelson Guzmanos, Elizabeth Joie Cruz, Suzanne Batalla, Kester John Tan, and George Ahmed Paglinawan. 

"The action of the House TriCom, according to the petition, is 'unconstitutional,'" the statement of Roque's office read. "The political and social media influencers and vloggers argued that the regulation of the content of the social media posts is 'in conflict with the constitutional prohibition that no law shall be passed that shall abridge the freedom of speech and of expression."

The petition further alleged that the acts of the House TriCom "create a chilling effect on the exercise of constitutional freedoms" and that they "constitute prior restraint on the right to free speech."

Roque, meanwhile, is suspicious of how the House is seemingly "targeting" the Dutertes and their allies.

"It is no coincidence that the conduct of the joint inquiry happened after the announcement of House Secretary-General that the three impeachment complaints vs. VP Inday Sara Duterte is about to be transmitted to Speaker Martin Romualdez this week," the former presidential spokesperson said.

"As I have said in numerous occasions, this latest action is part of the political witch hunt to silence the Dutertes and their outspoken allies. The real intent is to muzzle the free speech of these modern-day truth-tellers," he insisted.

According to him, the influencers have already been "prejudged" by Surigao del Norte 2nd District Rep. Robert Ace Barbers as "paid trolls and malicious vloggers" during his privilege speech.

"There is no other remedy but to find relief with the Supreme Court, where these embattled influencers and vloggers would have a fair fight. We are bringing the fight where it should rightfully be," Roque said.

Not to suppress freedom of speech

During the hearing, Barbers refuted claims that the hearing violates freedom of speech, emphasizing that their goal was to create policy regarding social media use to combat fake news.

"Dapat mayroon tayong disiplina, dapat mayroon tayong code of conduct, mayroon tayong ethics sa paggamit ng social media," Barbers said.

"Kagaya ng mga broadcasters, mayroon silang KBP (Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas), kagaya ng mga manunulat sa dyaryo, mayroon silang NUJP (National Union of Journalists of the Philippines), they're all bound by rules and regulations. The use of social media platforms, unfortunately, wala tayong ganyan sa ngayon. At hindi pwede na gawing rason ng mga 'yan na kinu-curtail natin ang freedom of speech nila," he added.

He said that the reason the vloggers were invited in the first place was to be able to share their insights on the matter.

"In the advent of social media, suddenly Filipinos become political analysts, they become journalist, they become experts. We need your wisdom. Ang gagaling niyo magtuligsa eh, dito niyo gawin nang sa gayon makagawa tayo ng isang polisiya na 'di maaabuso ito," Barbers said.

"Kaya 'wag kayong magdahilan na hindi kayo pupunta rito dahil 'di kayo naniniwala sa layunin ng imbestigasyon na ito. We want to craft a policy, a remedial legislation so that there will be discipline and code of ethics in the practice and use of our social media platform," he continued.

In 2022, a Pulse Asia survey found that about 9 out of 10 Filipinos see "fake news" as a problem. Over half of those surveyed deemed social media influencers, bloggers, and vloggers as the sources.