SENATORIAL candidate and House Deputy Minority Leader France Castro (PL, ACT Teachers) has sought the assistance of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) in going after a fake account on Facebook that has been posting malicious videos, text, and pictures red-tagging her and other candidates under the Makabayan bloc.
In a three-page letter to Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia, the lawmaker said the account has been misrepresenting itself by using the name “Makabayan” while targeting her and fellow senatorial bets under the Koalisyong Makabayan through AI-generated contents showing her supposedly alongside armed members of the New People’s Army.
“This fake and malicious post was published on 6 March 2025, at 7:00 p.m. by the fan page that has been posting similar red-tagging and fraudulent photos, videos and reels against other party-list and senatorial candidates of Makabayan,” she said.
Castro said the posts made by the bogus FB account are smearing not only the coalition, the part-list organizations, and their candidates but also their advocacies.
“Ultimately, such acts are directed against the public in general, to disrupt the election process, cause confusion among voters, prevent the holding of credible and honest elections, and defeat public participation,” she added.
She disclosed that their complaints to Meta, the entity that owns Facebook, asking to take down and disable the clone account have not been acted upon.
Invoking Comelec Resolution No. 11116 or the Anti-Discrimination and Fair Campaigning Guidelines, Castro noted that the poll body has correctly categorized red-tagging as an election offense.
She asked Garcia for help to tap the PNP, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) in investigating persons or groups behind the fake account and other similar FB users for trying to tamper with fair and honest elections.
Comelec was also requested to make representations with Meta Philippines to take down the clone FB account and similar others like it and to watermark all malicious contents to prevent them from being spread.
“We believe that spreaders of red-tagging and false information online will only get more vile and damaging to the public as election day nears, if left unchecked,” Castro added.
