Robin Padilla: “Para sa akin national threat ‘yung ganun eh. Tinatanong mo kung nasaan ‘yung Presidente”
ROBIN PADILLA – The senator believes that wanting to know where the President of the Philippines is may be considered a “national threat.”
On Monday, November 28, the Senate of the Philippines conducted a hearing on the proliferation and spread of false information or ‘’fake news”.
At one point, Padila asked: “Papaano ‘yun, wala ba kayong hakbang dun, Ma’am, sa mga fake news? Kasi lagi kong inaabangan kung ano ang sasabihin ng Office of the President kasi kasama ko si Presidente, nandun kami sa Cotabato noong panahon na ‘yun na ang tsinitsismis nasaan ang Pangulo,”
OPS Undersecretary Rowena Reformina responded to the query by stating that their office had been extremely cautious when drafting statements prior to releasing them to the media. But Padilla, the chairman of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, who was presiding over the hearing, did not seem to be satisfied.
“Anong pwede nating gawin? Sinong pwedeng magreklamo dun kasi para sa akin national threat ‘yung ganun eh. Tinatanong mo kung nasaan ‘yung Presidente,” Padilla said.
In a lengthy response to the senator, Angela Marie de Gracia-Cruz, the director of the Department of Justice’s Office of Cybercrime, listed additional laws already in place to address the spread of false information.
It can be recalled that last month, reports that President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. had left the Philippines for Japan while Severe Tropical Storm Paeng (also known as Nalgae internationally) was wreaking havoc in many regions of the nation causing the hashtag “NasaanAngPangulo” (Where is the President?) to become a trending topic on Twitter. But according to Padilla, Marcos Jr. was with him Cotabato at the time.
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