Vice President Sara Duterte (left), President Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. (Facebook, MANILA BULLETIN)

Alleged Chinese social media warriors have been actively pushing anti-PBBM or President Marcos content while simultaneously amplifying pro-Vice President Sara Duterte narratives.

Niceforo Balbedina II of PressOnePH shared this information to members of the House tri-committee (tri-comm) on Tuesday, Feb. 4 even as the solons tried to get to the bottom of the widespread disinformation and fake news peddling online.

“Kasagsagan ng March hanggang July, meron po kaming monitor na Chinese state media na actively po na nagso-sow ng iba’t ibang at mga kuwestyonableng impormasyon tungkol sa sigalot sa West Philippine Sea (WPS),” Balbedina said.

(From the peak of March until July, we monitored that the Chinese state media actively sowed various questionable information on conflict in the WPS.)

He said this was based on PressOnePH's investigation into what it called Foreign Influence Operations (FIO) and Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI) in the Philippines.

“At ito po yung pinaka-latest na meron po kami nahukay na pro-China na network of X (formerly Twitter) accounts na nagsususog ng anti-Philippine sentiment, habang nagpu-push ng content related po kay Vice President Sara Duterte,” he said.

(And this is the latest information that we have, we have unearthed a pro-China network of X accounts that put forth anti-Philippine sentiment, while pushing for content that's related to to Vice President Sara Duterte.)

Balbedina identified China Daily, China’s largest English-language newspaper, and its TikTok affiliate “Media Unlocked” as among the sources of artificial intelligence (AI)-generated disinformation content.

“Dito po sa channel na ito, nag-upload po sila ng mga videos na gumagamit ng AI at na-questionable po ang content,” he told the tri-comm.

(In this channel, they upload videos that use questionable AI content.)

PressOnePH investigators identified 107 suspicious accounts as of Feb. 4, 2025, that were spreading anti-Philippine sentiment, many of which had Chinese names and were created simultaneously.

In response to these foreign disinformation efforts, social media platform X temporarily restricted some of the Chinese-linked accounts involved in coordinated attacks against Marcos Jr.

However, only 24 out of the 107 identified accounts were permanently removed.

“Chinese in nature yung accounts, pero ‘yung sini-share po nila ang picture, may Tagalog ng mga kataga,” Balbedina pointed out.

(The accounts are Chinese in nature, but the pictures they share have Tagalog words.)

A particularly alarming discovery was the resurfacing of the debunked “polvoron” video, which falsely alleged that President Marcos was using illegal drugs.

“Yes yung po yung tamang term din ni resurface, ni-recycle po nila yung polvoron issue during itong mga panahon po na ito as a reaction to the signing of the landmark laws,” Balbedina said.

(Yes that's the correct term, it was made to resurface, the polvoron issue was recycled during this time as a reaction to the signing of the landmark laws.)