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READ: Part 1 | These Bicol Facebook pages spent almost P1M on ads attacking Villafuerte rivals
The Facebook page called itself Bicol News, implying that it was managed by a news organization. It was also posting content that appeared “timely” and “accurate — at least as far as 20-year-old Christian, a student from a major university in Albay province, is concerned.
Because of this, Christian relied heavily on the page for updates relevant to his home town. He is not alone. Bicol News has over 224,000 followers as of writing. Many of his acquaintances in college also follow the page.
Asked to take a closer look, however, Christian was surprised to note that Bicol News was originally named ‘Kapay’ (word for insane in Bicolano) at the time it was created on March 30, 2018. Days later, it changed its name to Kapay News. It assumed its current name, “Bicol News” on April 26, 2018.
“Napano ta naging news source?! (How did it become a news source)?” a surprised Christian said. It turns out that the stories that Christian had been reading from the Bicol News feed were mostly copy-pasted content sourced from other social media accounts.
Apart from not having links to any website external to Facebook, Bicol News is not transparent about the contact details and names of its administrators or owners. The page got the attention of Rappler because it has been boosting content either promoting members of the Villafuerte family or attacking their rivals.
Currently the dominant political dynasty in Camarines Sur, the Villafuertes hold three of the top elective positions in the province. They have dominated provincial politics for decades.
Rappler reached out to the Villafuertes through email and Facebook Messenger to request for an interview about political disinformation in Camarines Sur, but they have not yet responded. We will update this story once they do.
Rampant and normalized
Bicol News is not the only page that presents itself as a news outlet, but is actually weaponized to spread and boost propaganda against opposition politicians in Camarines Sur. There are presently quite a number of pages targeting Bicolano audiences which are presenting themselves as news media, but they do not appear to be official accounts of known media organizations.
Sheila Tabal, a media professor from Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU), observed that the creation of these pages with massive information operations has become even more rampant and normalized in the province.
“In Camarines Sur, we can notice that there are already a lot of such. Not only big politicians have that, even local politicians up to the barangay level. It seems that creating such accounts is now normalized,” she said in Filipino.
Four of these pages have collectively spent almost a million pesos in 2024 on content attacking Villafuerte rivals — apart from Bicol News, there’s Bicol Headlines, Bicol Overview, and Baretang Bikol.
Like Bicol News, these pages have no links to any website external to Facebook and they do not provide contact details of their owners or editorial staff. They presenting themselves as “news/media websites” to make these pages look like credible sources of information, local experts observing social media and politics said.
Beyond the promotional and attack posts, these dubious pages sustain engagement levels by reposting viral news content, entertainment, or lifestyle content that can urge online audiences to react and share.
However, even in postings outside political topics, these pages still spread disinformation. Bicol News posted on September 20, 2024 a photo of a moon and mini-moon that were clearly visible in the sky.
Rappler fact-checked the claim after finding that the photo was altered and the mini-moon would be too small to be seen with the naked eye as it is just 33 feet long.
Not identifying their owners enables moderators to escape accountability and responsibility from what they post on social media, according to Tabal.
“They are not accountable because [they] have no name,” she said. “So they have the audacity. Because unlike journalists who automatically have a byline, people will charge you if your news or any information there is wrong.”
Favoring the Villafuertes
While the individuals or organizations operating these pages are not disclosed on the pages themselves, certain contact details of accounts that posted ads on Meta’s platforms are disclosed on Meta’s Ads Library. Rappler tried to contact the page administrators through the mobile numbers provided on Meta’s Ads Library page, but was told that we reached wrong numbers.
However, this author found that quite a number of the users behind these pages have also been commenting positively on posts of the Villafuerte family.
For instance, various ads boosted by Bicol News in previous years appear to have been posted by a certain Maria Ana Catherine Tejada. Tejada has been commenting positively on posts made by Camarines Sur 2nd District Representative Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte Jr. and his son, 5th District Representative Miguel Luis “Migz” Villafuerte.
Meantime, the page administrator who boosted one of Bicol Headline’s propaganda posts, a certain Jillian Kendra Camacho, appears to be one of those who immediately posted pro-Villafuerte comments on a video from Bicol Politics that featured Migz.
Members of the clan also have a history of taking over and converting existing fan and meme pages into their official Facebook accounts. LRay’s page was originally a fan account for GMA actor Jake Vargas. The current verified account of his son, Migz, was originally named Mcdonald’s Sexret files 263.
This is also not the first election when rivals of the Villafuerte family have found themselves at the receiving end of online attacks.
When the late Rolando “Nonoy” Andaya Jr. ran against LRay’s sons, Migz and Luigi, in the 2019 and 2022 gubernatorial elections, respectively, he became the main target of fake news attacks.
Andaya was also from a well-known dynasty dominating the 1st District or northern portion of CamSur. He was a former lawmaker in Camarines Sur who served as the budget secretary under former president Gloria Arroyo from 2006 to 2010. He died on June 30, 2022.
One of the attacks against him was a post from a page named DDS Bicol claiming that the former president Rodrigo Duterte slammed Andaya for insulting Benjamin Diokno over the congressman’s criticism of Diokno’s alleged insertions in the national budget.
Vera Files fact-checked the claim, stating that the report was fabricated using a distorted Rappler story, “a spliced footage of his scuffle with LRay over a land dispute in April and a cut video of his address that was edited to make him look like the devil.”
Former Iriga City mayor Madel Alfelor was also attacked by fake news pages when she ran against Migz for the position of Camarines Sur 5th District Representative in the 2022 elections. Alfelor is also a politician from a dynasty dominating the 5th District or southern part of CamSur.
Two fake quote cards claiming that Alfelor was questioning Robredo’s capability to lead as president were posted separately by pages Bicol Politics and Yellow DDS on the same date of August 7, 2021. Rappler fact-checked the false claim on August 18, 2021, stating that there were no official news reports or releases proving that Alfelor indeed issued the statement.
Difference in the gravity of attacks
Nearing the 2025 elections, it is evident that both sides are throwing mud at each other, according to Mary Joyce Bulao, a political analyst who has long been observing the local elections in Camarines Sur. She emphasized, however, that there is a difference in the gravity of the attacks.
As seen in the fact-check stories of Rappler and Vera Files, attacks against the opposition include edited graphics, fabricated stories, and unsubstantiated claims.
The attacks hurled by the opposition against the incumbent Villafuertes included a claim which used outdated poverty statistics that presented CamSur as the poorest province in the Bicol region. This was used to demand accountability and criticize the performance of the Villafuertes as public officials who have been in power for a long time.
“I mean it’s still wrong in any case, but the gravity would be lighter compared to deliberately coming up with these elaborate sets of blah blah blah just to counter the narratives,” the political analyst said.
Bulao also pointed out that the opposition’s claims could just be misinformation and not particularly propaganda. “It’s also possible that they’re just using a different set of data.”
Leo Imperial, a chairperson of AdNU Social Science department, further explained that the “poorest province” narrative from the opposition primarily wanted to highlight whether the politicians were really able to fulfill their promise of progress in the province.
“So ang tigpapaluwas ninda (oposisyon), haloy-haloy na yan (incumbent) diyan sa position, nakamati ba kamo ning progreso (So, what the opposition is saying, the incumbent officials have long been in the position, have you felt any progress)?” Imperial explained.
More than media literacy
Given the prevalence of online disinformation and propaganda, Tabal said it is the responsibility of social media users to be vigilant with respect to any content circulating on the internet. However, she stressed that the pressure must be directed more on the creators of disinformation and the platforms that serve as a space for these types of content to proliferate.
She suggested for the government to make laws that require these organizations and social media platforms to impose efficient measures that will eliminate false information online.
“Kasi nag-e-earn naman [yung social media platforms] nang napakarami eh bakit hindi nila budgetan ng millions [yung mechanism] para ma-weed out yung mga fake news?” she said. (Because [the social media platforms] earn so much, why don’t they allocate millions [on the mechanism] to weed out the fake news?)
According to Champagne Carpio, a political science professor from AdNU, aside from anti-cybercrime and anti-cyber libel, there is currently no existing law that specifically penalizes groups or individuals responsible for creating and disseminating political propaganda on social media.
As of writing, the newly-proposed House Bill No. 11178 or Anti-Troll Farm and Election Disinformation Bill is still pending with the Committee on Information and Communications Technology. It has been so since December 9, 2024.
This bill aims to hold troll farms, vloggers, and other channels accountable for peddling propaganda on social media. It also seeks to penalize candidates who knowingly benefit from these actions.
But then again, just like what analysts have been pointing out: who will be held accountable for these propaganda machines if the culprits behind them are faceless and nameless? – with Gemma Mendoza/Rappler.com
Angelee Kaye Abelinde, a campus journalist from Naga City, is a second-year Journalism student of Bicol University and the current copy editor of The Bicol Universitarian. She is also an Aries Rufo Journalism Fellow of Rappler for 2024.