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Citing the potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) in the 2025 mid-term elections, the Commission on Eections launched the "Task Force Katotohanan, Katapatan at Katarungan (KKK) sa Halalan" during a recent stakeholders forum. 

Chairman George Garcia appealed to the forum participants to help and support the Comelec in coming up with sound policy guidelines in relation to disinformation and misinformation on social media and the Internet, absent a law defining Al and deepfakes and punishing its misuse and abuse in our jurisdiction. 

The forum-slash-dialogue titled "AI and Philippine Elections Decoded",was held Thursday, July 18 at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law, Diliman Quezon City. 

The attendees represented the academic, legal, and information technology (IT) communities; political parties and party-list organizations; citizens arms; and other interest groups. 

The Comelec said it deemed it best to engage and involve everyone through a consultative and collaborative process even as it acknowledged the uncertainties and difficulties in dealing with false inforation and malicious actors on the digital front. 

The Task Force KKK sa Halalan will be tasked to monitor and regulate posted and published contents on quad-media (TV, radio, print and online), and conduct prebunking and debunking of malicious and erroneous information against the Comelec. 

It will also "undertake voter education and information efforts and report and recommend for prosecution the peddlers of misinformation, disinformation, and malinfomation and malicious actors in the age of AI and deepfakes in elections, in order to protect the integrity of the Comelec as well as the sanctity of the elections". 

During the forum, insights and inputs from participating key election management officials, experts in AI technology, industry leaders, accredited citizens' arms, civil society organizations, political parties, and the legal academic community were solicited to guide the Comelec in formulating a sound, relevant, and effective policy in navigating and addressing the challenges in the rapidly evolving technological landscape as it relates to elections 

Commissioner Nelson Celis expressed his deep appreciation to the participants for accepting the Comelec's call for support not only to discuss the potential threat the misuse of AI technology and deepfake in our electoral process but imposed to proactively seek expert ad vice and best practices that will help the commission in addressing these issues. 

The Comelec stressed that despite the limitations imposed by the current legal framework in the regulation of election propaganda and prohibition on propagation of false information in elections, it will not hesitate to employ its broad and plenary rule-making powers to issue appropriate rules and regulations, "lest it be remiss of its constitutional duty to ensure the holding of free, orderly, honest, peaceful and credible elections".