Malacañang assured the public that it will be working hard to address the rampant problem of fake news.
“Ito po ay isang seryosong bagay na tututukan ng OPS,” Office of the Press Secretary OIC Cheloy Garafil said in a press briefing.
Garafil was reacting on the latest Pulse Asia report showing that 86% of adult Filipinos agree that fake news is a big problem in the country.
The Pulse Asia survey showed that 9 out of 10 Filipinos believe fake news is a problem in the country.
“Social media influencers, bloggers, and/or vloggers are seen by most Filipino adults (58%) as peddlers of fake news about government and politics. For a small majority of adults (58%), social media influencers, bloggers, and/or vloggers are responsible for spreading fake political news in the country – an opinion shared by most Metro Manilans (69%), those in the rest of Luzon (67%), and those belonging to Class ABC and D (69% and 58%, respectively),” the survey reported.
Garafil said the government may soon release programs on how to combat fake news. \
China denied that its has placed the Philippines in a tourism blacklist due to the continuing POGO operations in the country.
“The report of “tourist blacklist” is misinformation. China has not placed the Philippines on its blacklist for tourism,” the Chinese Embassy said in a statement.
The Embassy adds that tourism is an important component of practical cooperation between China and the Philippines.
“Before the COVID-19 pandemic, close to two million Chinese nationals traveled to the Philippines in 2019, making China the second largest source of tourists. We expect more Chinese tourists to come to this country after the pandemic,” the Embassy said.
Senate President Migz Zubiri was the first one to claim that the Philippines has been blacklisted.
“Maybe it was lost in translation and what the good Ambassador meant was we could be possibly blacklisted as he mentioned they do that to countries who promote gambling for their countrymen,” Zubiri said in a follow up statement.
“The word blacklist came from the good Amb and not from the Senators,” noting a strong possibility that the PH is either already in the list or could be added if POGOs continue to proliferate in the country,” he added.
