Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers (Ellson Quismorio/ MANILA BULLETIN)

House quad-committee (quad-comm) overall chairman Surigao del Norte 2nd district Rep. Robert Ace Barbers had told authorities to not become passive in the fight against online trolls who do nothing but drive society toward chaos.

"I call to action all our agencies in charge of investigating these [trolls] to be more active and make their presence felt so that our people may be protected by the civil servants who draw salaries from their taxes," Barbers said in a privilege speech Wednesday afternoon, Dec. 4.

"Do not be passive and wait for complaints to be filed before you act on the obvious transgressions of the law. I am filing my complaint here now, Madam Speaker, and I hope everybody's listening," he told the plenary.

Barbers called out in particular the Philippine National Police (PNP), the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC).

"We have been targets of these possibly POGO (Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators) and drug money-sponsored trolls and vloggers. I was just watching on the sidelines waiting for some action from the PNP, NBI and the CICC.

"But I waited too long, Madam Speaker. I hope I'm not waiing in vain," said the Nacionalista Party (NP) stalwart.

"The ultimate goal of the trolls...is to create chaos and disorder by sowing false information, confusion, fear, and slander their subjects. We must not let them win," Barbers said.

He earlier said that the quad-comm's hard-hitting hearings have rubbed people involved in illegal drugs and POGOs the wrong way.

"These trolls get paid, and we all know that. The sheer number of trolls and the amount of false information that they flood the web with will give you an idea of the value or amount of money needed to pay them," he said.

"Obviously...the ones funding these malicious campaigns are the one hurting the most. The are also the ones with the vast financial resources to pay these trolls. And who could they be?" asked Barbers.

"One thing is for sure...the money involved is staggering. Which can only probably come from illegal POGOs and drug syndicates operating in the country," he noted.