Senior vice chairperson of the Committee on Appropriations, Marikina City 2nd district Rep. Stella Quimbo explained on Monday, Sept. 26 how the Office of the Press Secretary (OPS) will fight fake news and misinformation among Filipinos.
"Una sa lahat, napaka-importante ng problema ng fake news at ito po ay nirerecognize ng ating OPS. And of course maraming plano para tugunan ang problema na yan (First of all, the problem on fake is very important to our OPS. And of course there are a lot of plans to address that problem)," Quimbo said during the House plenary debate on the agency's proposed budget from 2023.
Quimbo, the OPS budget sponsor, not that a key change under the fledgling Marcos administration is that the unified messaging program is now under the mandate of the OPS.
She described this program as the "most important task" of the OPS. According to the lady solon, it's the content of the platform that sometimes becomes problematic, and not the platform itself.
"Kaya sisiguraduhin ng ating OPS na mayroon iisa lamang na mensahe. Ito ang dahilan kung bakit ipapatupad itong unified messaging program within the executive branch (The OPS will make sure that there's only one message. This is the reason why the unified messaging program will be implemented within the executive branch).
"Ibig sabihin lang, simple no, magkakaroon ng vetting ang OPS bago maglabas ang government agencies ng kani-kanilang mga press statements (This simply means that the OPS will employ a vetting process before government agencies release their respective press statements)," Quimbo explained.
The budget interpellator at that time, Camarines Sur 3rd district Rep. Gabriel Bordado Jr., asked the sponsor, "In other words you're telling us this can address misinformation and fake news?"
To this, Quimbo said, "Tama po. Kasi ang problema po kasi sa fake news at misinformation, ay nagkakaroon ng iba't ibang slant sa isang storya (That's correct. Because the problem with fake news and misinformation is that there are different slants to a story)."
"So pag nagkakaroon tayo ng isang unified messaging, at nagkakaroon ng vetting, sinisigurado ng OPS na iisa lamang ang balita na lalabas at ito po ay magiging official dahil magagaling sa iisang office, which is the OPS (So when we do unified messaging, and we conduct vetting, the OPS makes sure that only one official news will be released, and this will only be issued by the OPS)," the Marikina solon said.
Press Secretary Trixie Cruz-Angeles was present at the plenary during the hearing.