Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles believes that improving literacy among Filipinos is an effective weapon against the proliferation of fake news.

Angeles made this assertion Friday, Sept. 2 during the House Committee on Appropriations' deliberation on the proposed 2023 budget of the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS).

During the hearing, Angeles lamented over the sorry state of the National Printing Office (NPO) which, according to her, did not have its own printing press and was therefore unable to carry out printing services.

She told House solons about her vision of using the NPO to encourage Filipinos to read.

"Pagka nakabili kami ng iba’t ibang klaseng press aabot na rin tayo sa puntong maka-encourage tayo ng pagbabasa (Once we're able to purchase different kinds of printing press, we'll reach the point of encouraging the act of reading)," she said.

"Kasi isang panglaban sa mga fake news ay ma-capacitate natin ang ating mga mamamayan marunong magbasa, marunong, nag-e-encourage ng mga nagsusulat ng libro, mae-encourage yung mga second round printings na wala ng copyright. Yung process of decoding kasi sa pagbabasa, nakakatalino (One weapon against fake news is to capacitate our countrymen who know how to read, those who encourage the writing of books, to encourage second round printing of books that no longer need copyright. The process of decoding through reading makes people smart)," Angeles noted.

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"Pangalawa, kung marunong magbasa at marunong magbasa ng maigi ang ating citizenry, yung issue ng fake news medyo nadi-diminish, magkakaroon ng kapasidad na maghanap ng impormasyon from other resources ang ating mga mamamayan (Second, if our citizenry knows how to read and knows how to read well, then the issue of fake news gets diminished and they will gain the capacity to look for information from other resources)," she explained.