The Presidential Communications Office (PCO) has urged the public to remain vigilant as it refuted a "deep fake" audio of  President Marcos supposedly directing the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) to act against a "particular foreign country."

The PCO said this on Tuesday evening, April 23, after a video containing the manipulated audio was uploaded on a "popular video streaming platform."

In its statement, the PCO said Marcos did not make such a directive to the military and described the audio as a "deepfake." Deepfakes are an advanced form of digital content manipulation made using generative artificial intelligence (AI).

"The audio deepfake attempts to make it appear as if the President has directed our Armed Forces of the Philippines to act against a particular foreign country. No such directive exists nor has been made," it said.

The PCO asked the public to remain vigilant and help the agency in its campaign against spreading false information by being responsible for the content they share online.

"We ask everyone to be proactive in exposing and fighting against misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation," it said.

"Let us all be more vigilant against such manipulated digital content that are deployed by actors to propagate malicious content online and advance a malign influence agenda," it added.

According to the PCO, it is working on measures to combat fake news, misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation through its Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Campaign.

"We are also closely coordinating and working with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT), the National Security Council (NSC), the National Cybersecurity Inter-Agency Committee (NCIAC), and relevant private sector stakeholders to actively address the proliferation and malicious use of video and audio deepfakes and other generative AI content," it said.

"We encourage everyone to work with us in fostering a more aware, resilient, and engaged citizenry in our digital commons," it added.