Social media personalities were left with no choice but to apologize after they admitted to the House tri-committee (tri-comm) on Friday, March 21 that they don't confirm the truthfulness of the information they shared online in their viral posts.

Friday's tri-comm hearing proved to be tense as the lawmakers finally faced off with onlie content creators who, for the past two hearings, snubbed the House's invitation to attend the inquiry.

Eight of the 18 invited resource persons were present during Friday's hearing at the House of Representatives.

Lawmakers brought up during the hearing the various social media posts that the resource persons made on their personal accounts.

Manila 6th district Rep. Benny Abante, chairman of the House Committee on Human Rights, seemed to be exasperated by the claim made on social media by one of the resource persons.

Abante, backed by Abang Lingkod Party-list Rep. Stephen Paduano, questioned the basis of social media personality MJ Quiambao Reyes' claim when she said that extra-judicial killing (EJK) victims under former president Duterte were only "a massive hoax".

Reyes insisted that her claim was based on her "own truth". 

But when Abante finally challenged her to provide proof that the EJK victims that the House investigated were really a hoax, she wasn't able to do so.

She was then asked to apologize for making a claim that, for the lawmakers, was baseless.

"Next time po, bago po tayo magsulat ng gano'n, kailangan po kumuha muna tayo ng mga dokumento under oath (Next time, before we write about anything, we should look for documents that are under oath)," Reyes said.

"I apologize, sir," she said before turning emotional.

In a latter part of the hearing, Reyes said she burst into tears because she was afraid of being cited in contempt and being detained at the House. 

But the solons said they did not even threaten to detain her.

Another prominent social media personality, Krizette Chu, apologized for her "oversight" when she crticized congressmen for sending their children to study in Europe, as well as when she called the government "stupid" in relation to 4Ps (Pantawid Pamilyang Pilipino Program).

Chu said she was only carried away by her emotions. She then apologized for the unsavory words she hurled against the government.

"I apologize for my bad words, Sir. I apologize for saying the word 'tanga' in my post," Chu told Abante.

Friday's hearing was the third one that the House tri-comm held to investigate the prevalence of disinformation and fake news that 

The resource persons—albeit only half of the total number of those invited—were compelled to attend the hearing after being issued a subpoena during the previous hearing. There were also the reports that they would be cited for contempt in case they choose not to appear again.

President Marcos' former press secretary and social media personality Trixie Cruz-Angeles, who eventually became a critic of the president, said she attended the latest hearing because she was given a "compulsory order".

Cruz-Angeles and Reyes, among other social media personalities invited, previously filed a petition before the Supreme Court (SC) to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the House hearing.

They claimed that the congressional investigation was unconstitutional and unfairly targeted them for expressing political views, particularly in support of former president Rodrigo Duterte. The High Court denied their petition.