(Unsplash)

Camarines Sur 2nd district Rep. LRay Villafuerte has hailed the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for its timely release of the digital campaign rules on so-called deepfakes. 

“I believe our Comelec officials have a good handle now on monitoring and blocking digital disinformation and misinformation in the run-up to the campaign season for the elections in May 2025," Villafuerte said Sunday, Sept. 22, just a few weeks away from the filing of certificates of candidacy (COCs). 

The National Unity Party (NUP) president noted that the poll body has released the country’s first-ever online campaign guidelines on the rational regulation of artificial intelligence (AI) technology, "with an eye to checking the use of deepfakes to unduly vilify or extol particular candidates". 

Although the use of AI technology in government processes can certainly improve the delivery of public services, especially with the automation of systems and data management, Villafuerte says there's still a need for safeguards. 

“The Comelec is spot on in preventing us from rushing headlong into allowing AI, specifically deepfake technology, into our electoral campaign system, considering that, at this point,  the potential for digital misinformation and disinformation appears boundless even as the capability of our poll watchdog and the rest of government to respond to or counter it is limited.” 

As Comelec Chairman Greg Erwin Garcia himself and other experts have stressed in the past, Villafuerte said, “AI tools such as visual or image generators and voice-cloning software are readily available to shrewdly produce poll-related digital materials for or against candidates  that can manipulate our electoral process during the campaign, balloting, vote-counting and post-tallying phases.” 

“Hence, kudos to the Comelec, under the leadership of Chairman Greg (Garcia),in releasing this early the guidelines on AI regulation ahead of the campaign period for the 2025 elections," he said. 

Comelec released last week its Resolution No. 11064 covering the new guidelines on “the use of social media, artificial intelligence, and Internet technology, for digital election campaign and the prohibition and punishment of its misuse for disinformation and misinformation in connection with the 2025 national and local elections and the BARMM elections". 

The midterm balloting for national and local officials as well as for the Bangsamoro of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM) parliamentary officials will be held simultaneously on May 12, 2025.