ILOILO CITY – Mayor Jerry Treñas denied using government funds and hiring online trolls to raise his stock after his official Facebook page was discovered by a criitic to have spent more than P1 million to boost his posts for a period of four years.

“It’s personal fund,” said Treñas in a press conference on Monday, August 19.

TRENAS (Arnold Almacen/CMO)

The mayor said that he issued personal money to boost his Facebook page with sponsored ads paid for by individuals working for the Iloilo City government.

Out of the more than P1 million spent from August 4, 2020 to August 14, 2024, Meta data indicated that P520,853 was spent by Ruthmar Gabileo of the City Tourism Office.

In a separate statement, the mayor claimed that he spent to promote the city’s image and entice tourists and, as a result, the city government won awards.

Treñas denied he has hired trolls to praise him and his administration. “These are real persons. They are organic,” the mayor said.

He alluded that he knows who hires the services of trolls but he refused to identify who he was referring to.

Nereo Lujan, a Treñas critic, who faces cyber libel complaints filed by the city chief executive, noted that the mayor’s Facebook page was relatively silent when it was first created on July 2, 2018.

But it ticked by August 2020, at the height of the pandemic, when Iloilo City under Treñas earned the moniker “Wakanda of the Philippines.”

During the pandemic, Treñas enjoyed positive mileage on social media that was later picked up by the national media.

The Treñas media team, hired under the City Mayor’s Office, used to broadcast live meetings and press conferences on his official Facebook page. Treñas was sometimes seen publicly throwing tantrums and cussing for several minutes during these events.

These only stopped after May 20, 2024 when Treñas cussed and threatened to file libel charges against two journalists for asking questions about the demolition of Iloilo City Central Market.

Lujan noted a shift in the social media practices of Treñas, especially when the mayor is campaigning for his daughter, Raisa, to replace Iloilo Rep. Julienne “Jamjam” Baronda.