Flag of China (Unsplash)

Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) Commodore Jay Tarriela has confirmed to congressmen that China’s absurd claim on Palawan in the Philippines is "a new kind of propaganda".

Tarriela, PCG's spokesman for the West Philippine Sea (WPS) was among the resource persons invited to the House tri-committee (tri-comm) hearing Friday, March 21 that delved on the spread of fake news online.

Regarding Beijing's claim on Palawan, 1-Rider Party-list Rep. Rodge Gutierrez said that, unfortunately, many people believe the “blatantly false claims".

He pointed out that online content claiming Palawan was “beyond our territory” was “consciously created" with users employing Chinese characters to defend the posts.

“Pag-aari daw ng China ang Palawan (China claims to own Palawan),” Gutierrez told the panel, referring to the posts.

When he asked Tarriela if he had encountered such type of fake news before, the PCG official answered in the negative.

“This is a new kind of propaganda. The national government will debunk this false claim,” he told the tri-comm.

Tarriela says there is a WPS transparency group that monitors social media platforms. He says that this is part of the evolving function of the PCG to fight disinformation, which is increasingly prevalent in different social media platforms.

TikTok, which was the only social media platform represented during the hearing by public policy manager Peachy Paderna, assured the special joint committee that it would address the concerns raised by the PCG.

“We do not allow misinformation that causes harm, including disinformation that could lead to individual or community harm,” she said, adding that TikTok works with the appropriate teams to review flagged content and is committed to keeping harmful content off the platform.

Gutierrez, however, criticized this response as mere reactionary. He pointed out that the flagged posts were frequently reposted by other users, causing them to go viral.

Paderna said TikTok employs proactive measures to tackle harmful content. She said the platform uses machine technology to review videos quickly and has implemented a sweep to detect and remove misleading material.

“We rely on community reports to identify violations of our community guidelines and engage independent fact-checkers,” Paderna said.

But Gutierrez pointed out that the flagged posts were reposted, thus allowing the disinformation to spread further, even if individual videos were taken down.

Palawan is part of the Luzon island group in the Philippines, specifically within the Mimaropa region.