A petition for disqualification has been filed against San Fernando, Camarines Sur mayoralty bet Michelle de Guzman Mabulo before the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for peddling “fake news” against her family’s political rivals.

In a joint complaint-affidavit, CamSur Rep. Luis Raymund Villafuerte and Gov. Vincenzo Renato Luigi Villafuerte said their filing against Mabulo for her disqualification as a poll bet was “without prejudice to the institution of other criminal and civil complaints against respondent (Mabulo)” for violation of the Omnibus Election Code (OEC) of the Philippines in making false accusations online against the Villafuertes.

While Mabulo is running for mayor in San Fernando, her husband and outgoing mayor Fernando Mabulo, is running for congressman in the province’s second legislative district against Luigi Villafuerte, who is the incumbent governor of the province.

Rep. Villafuerte, meanwhile, was once a three-term governor and is running for this gubernatorial post in the May 12 polls.

“We are executing this Complaint-Affidavit to attest to the truth of all the foregoing and to cause the prosecution of respondent Mabulo for violation of the above-mentioned crime. We reserve the right to present additional evidence which are not readily available to us at the moment,” the Villafuertes said in their joint complaint-affidavit.

They noted that in Comelec Resolution No. 11064 issued last Sept. 17, 2024, this Commission released the “Guidelines on the Use of Social Media, Artificial Intelligence, and Internet Technology, for Digital Election Campaign,” which prohibited and punished its misuse for disinformation and misinformation in the 2025 balloting.

"Disinformation" refers to “false information that is spread, or information that is based on fact, but removed from its original context and is maliciously manipulated, and used in a partisan political activity or digital election campaign, with the intent to mislead, harm, or manipulate public opinion or voter behavior.”

“Fake news” is defined, meanwhile, as “the colloquial, collective, and common term used by ordinary Filipinos to refer to misinformation, malinformation, or disinformation deliberately presented as legitimate news and disseminated through digital platforms, traditional media, or other communication channels, with the intent to deceive, mislead, or manipulate public opinion or voter behavior.”

The Villafuertes recalled that Mabulo had wrongly accused them of vote-buying in posting on her Facebook page last May 1 a photo of five folded P1,000 bills on the side of a letter supposedly signed by the two complainants.

In her Facebook post, Mabulo stated that: “Ano ito? Totoo ba ito? Kaya mayonq nagigibo sa probinsya ta, mabakal na lang kada election.”

Translated in Tagalog, Mabulo’s post means: “Ano ito? Totoo ba ito? Dahil wala nagagawa so probinsya, bibili nalang tuwing eleksyon.”

The Villafuertes said that in this Facebook post, “respondent Mabulo clearly and falsely depicts complainants in her post as engaged in vote-buying … By her evil and malicious design she made it appear that P5,000 pesos has been distributed together with the letter purported to have been signed by us and hearing our photographs. This, of course, is not true.”

They said this Facebook post, which has been shared and circulated 660 times thus far, was “false and deceptive news” as they have “never engaged in any form of vote-buying and have strictly complied with all elections laws in the present and all the past elections.”

By posting this fake news, they said that Mabulo violated Section 261(z)(11) of Batas Pambansa (BP) Blg. 881, or the OEC, which prohibits election offenses and imposes jail terms on violators and disqualifies them from holding elective posts.

The complainants said that with her baseless post on social media, Mabulo has “propagated a false and alarming information—that complainants are engaged in vote-buying. Her intent is, of course, to cause confusion among the voters of Camarines Sur and induce them to vote against herein complainants, which relates to the general conduct of the election. She is clearly liable for violation of Section 261(2)(11) of BP Blg. 881.”

As for Article V of Comelec Resolution No. 11064, the complainants said that Mabulo was guilty of “misuse and malicious use of social media, artificial intelligence technology, and Internet technology.”

They said Mabulo’s bogus allegation of vote-buying was “libelous as defined in Article 355 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

And for being committed through a computer system and online, her election offense was covered by Republic Act (RA) No. 10175, otherwise referred to as the "Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2012.”

The Villafuertes pointed out that under Section 265 of BP 881, the Commission shall, through its duly authorized legal officers, have the exclusive power to conduct preliminary investigation of all election offenses punishable under the OEC, and to prosecute the same.

“In light of the foregoing, there exists probable cause to indict respondent Michelle de Guzman Mabulo with violation of Section 261(z)(11) in relation to Section 264 of BP Blg. 881. This is without prejudice to the institution of other criminal and civil complaints against herein respondent,” the petitioners said.