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Who is Franco Mabanta?

Published May 6, 2026 04:13 pm
Palace Press Office Claire Castro shows a photo of social media personality Franco Mabanta with former president Rodrigo Duterte, in a press briefing in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, on May 6, 2026. Mabanta, the founder of an online news platform, was arrested on May 5, 2026, for alleged extortion. (Photos RTVM/Jeff Damicog)
Palace Press Office Claire Castro shows a photo of social media personality Franco Mabanta with former president Rodrigo Duterte, in a press briefing in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu, on May 6, 2026. Mabanta, the founder of an online news platform, was arrested on May 5, 2026, for alleged extortion. (Photos RTVM/Jeff Damicog)
Social media personality Franco Mabanta got arrested Tuesday night, May 6, by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for allegedly extorting P300 million from congressman Martin Romualdez.
But who is he?
Mabanta is known in the vlogger community as a supporter and one of the key players in the social media campaign for the tandem of now President Bongbong Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte during the 2022 national elections.
During that time, he was seen in several photos with pro-Uniteam vloggers. 
After Marcos and Duterte won, Mabanta was reported to have gone into business and later founded the Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) which has been dragged in the alleged extortion of Romualdez.
Following his arrest, there were claims that he is closer to the First Family, a claim that was rejected by Palace presidential spokesperson Claire Castro.
Castro later showed photos of Mabanta with former president Rodrigo Duterte.
But other vloggers posted their own “receipts” through photos and videos with the First Family.
Meanwhile, Mabanta, through PGMN’s social media pages, denied the allegations against him.
“We are innocent. This was a setup,” he said about the NBI arrest.
Mabanta explained that PGMN is ready to release an investigative report that it has worked on for five months.

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