Officials from the House of Representatives want the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC) and other government agencies to show that they mean business when it comes to stifling so-called China propaganda pages online that spread misinformation on the West Philippine Sea (WPS) issue.

House impeachment adviser and prosecution panel spokesperson Robert Ace Barbers specifically pointed to the Facebook page Media Unlocked as a source of such fake news that shamelessly twists facts to fit its narrative.

Barbers couldn't help but liken these China propaganda pages and its corruptive content to pornograpic websites.

"NTC should block these China misinformation pages the same way that government cracks down on porn sites. To follow or subscribe to these pages should be deemed unpatriotic," he said.

As part of its powers, the NTC can order internet service providers (ISPs) to block certain websites, although its authority is limited and subject to legal challenges

The NTC oversees ISPs and public telecom entities. It can issue directives requiring them to block malicious domains, especially when coordinated with the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT).

Barbers said the NTC should at the very least look into having the particular Facebook page flagged for fake news. He also suggested that the relevant agencies come up with a video explainer to debunk the claims made by Media Unlocked.

"They should take it down or better yet before taking it down an explainer from from our end will discuss frame by frame the misinformation they're spreading just like what the Chinese girl in the video is doing," he said.

"So that even it is seen by the Filipino youth, they will be able to discern the fake news from the real one," noted the former House quad-committee (quad-comm) overall chairman.

The particular video that Barbers was referring to claimed that a Philippine vessel "intruded" into the "Chinese territorial waters of Huangyan Island" as part of a "staged drama". Huangyan is the Chinese name for Bajo de Masinloc--a feature that is in fact well within the Philippines' exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

The break down video insinuated that the Philippine vessel purposely "cut across the sailing past of a Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) ship". This was supposedly done to trigger a water cannon response from the CCG ship, which a CNN crew on the much smaller local vessel captured.

"Manila wanted to put on a tough performance and win support from its boss, but the performance fell flat," claimed the video, which added that this took place at the time of the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting in the Philippines. US officials attended the meeting.

Senior Deputy Minority Leader Mamamayang Liberal (ML) Party-list Rep. Leila de Lima blasted the particular page for spewing lies about the Philippines' exercise of its sovereignty in the WPS.

"We condemn this kind of content that clearly peddle fake news and disinformation about what is really happening in the [WPS]. Such content echoes China’s propaganda and misleads the public by justifying its hostilities and incursions into Philippine territory," she said.

De Lima called on ths DICT and other concerned agencies to closely monitor such content and similar pages and "urgently implement the necessary measures to prevent the spread of fake news and disinformation".

"Our government should also strengthen its collaboration with digital platforms to ensure that false and misleading content has no place in our digital space," she said.

"Kung hindi tumitigil ang China sa panggigipit at pag-angkin sa hindi nila pagmamay-ari, at tuloy-tuloy ang pagpapakalat ng ganyang mga kasinungalingan, dapat lang na maging seryoso at mas agresibo pa ang gobyerno sa pagpapaunawa sa ating mamamayan, lalo na sa kabataan, sa halaga ng pagtatanggol sa ating teritoryo," the former senator reckoned.

(If China does not stop its harassment and claims over what it does not own, and continues spreading such lies, then the government must be more serious and even more aggressive in educating our people, especially the youth, on the importance of defending our territory.)

For Bicol Saro Party-list Rep. Terry Ridon, the Department of National Defense (DND) and National Security Council (NSC) must also flex its muscles when it comes to such content.

"The DND and the NSC should flag all social media pages and content which propagate fake news, misinformation and disinformation relating to the nation’s lawful and legitimate rights over the [WPS]," said the Committee on Public Accounts chairman.

"They should make representations before social media platforms for the removal of these pages and content on the basis of fake news, misinformation and disinformation," he added.