Despite recognizing the great influence of social media "trolls", Vice President Leni Robredo still won't stoop to the level of using them for her own communications strategy.
Robredo made this clear on Friday, Sept. 17 even as she contemplates whether or not to run for president in the May 2022 national elections.
In an chance interview during the launch of the Vaccine Express program in San Fernando, Pampanga, Robredo opined that one of the biggest reasons for her poor showing in pre-election surveys has been the glut of trolls in the online space.
"Sa social media, marami iyong mga anonymous accounts. Alam naman natin marami iyong mga troll armies (There are a lot of anonymous accounts on social media. We know that there are a lot of troll armies there)," she said.
"Naging masikip kasi talaga masyado iyong daluyan ng communications in the last six years dahil iyong propaganda talaga umiral, eh (The flow of communication became tight in the last six years due to the promotion of propaganda)," claimed the opposition leader.
Asked if she thought this was one of the reasons why her survey figures have been low, Robredo said: "Isa—isa sa mga malalaking bagay, tayo kasi (It's one of the big reasons because) we can only speculate."
She further noted that those with the means to control or maintain these social media armies have had the bigger platform for communication as opposed to those who who don't have the means.
Asked by another reporter if she would be willing fight fire with fire by tapping her own troll armies or troll farms, the 56-year-old Robredo said no.
"Alam mo, kapag tinapatan natin iyan, anong kaibahan natin sa kanila, ‘di ba? Papaano pa tayo magkakaroon ng moral ascendancy na sabihin na mali sila? Ang dapat, tapatan natin iyong kasinungalingan with the truth (You know, if we use the same method, how different would we be from them? How would we gain the moral ascendancy to say that they're wrong? The right thing to do is to counter lies with the truth)," she said.
"So sa amin, kapag may mga nagvo-volunteer na mga supporters, 'Kami po iyong sasagot online,' parati namin sinasabi na walang false information. 'Puwede ninyong sagutin , pero sasagutin niyo lang kung ano iyong totoo.' So pakiusap natin iyon (So for us, whenever there are supporters who volunteer that they 'would be the ones to answer online', we always tell them, no false information please. 'You may answer the trolls, but only with the truth.' So that is our plea)," Robredo said.