March 25, 2025
Manila – Director Jaime Santiago said Monday that the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) has a list of 20 Vloggers and is tracking the raising of funds to spread fake news that targets government officials and has exacerbated political tensions.
San Diego told reporters after his graduation ceremony at NBI Academy that a common theme permeates this false information, raising doubts about the coordination efforts.
“We are looking at why their numbers are increasing. Why do they seem to have only one theme – Riding the riots in our political atmosphere? This shouldn't happen. Our country is in trouble. Citizens will be confused.”
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“We have a list of these vloggers that spread fake news,” San Diego said.
When asked how many names are on the list, he said 20.
Beyond Fake News Players
San Diego added that the survey will not just identify individual spreaders, but focus on revealing potential financial supporters.
“We are looking at whether there is one person who leads them,” he said, pointing to the investigation into possible sources of funding behind coordinated false propaganda campaigns.
Recognizing the complexity of the issue, San Diego said the NBI will work with other government agencies to combat the spread of fake news.
“Last week, we met with Dict [Department of Information and Communications Technology] and NTC [National Telecommunications Commission] To discuss how we can stop these fake news communicators, bloggers and content creators once and for all. ” he said among Filipinos.
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Jurisdiction issues
A major challenge highlighted by San Diego is the issue of jurisdiction, mainly when vloggers and content Creators reside overseas.
“In the United States, for example, defamation is a civil case, not a criminal case. So if the blogger is a U.S. citizen, how do we enforce the law against citizens, especially when their laws are different from ours?” he explained.
But he said they were exploring all the avenues.
He added: “For example, they may be inciting incitement incitement, which is a crime in the United States and here. We are also studying tax evasion.”
San Diego added that extradition would also be feasible and that the NBI could ask for the help of Interpol.
Regarding the question of suppressing freedom of speech, Santiago said: “Okay, lang yan – freedom of speech, freedom of speech pero pagka lumampas na sa hangganan, nakakakakomit na sila na sila ng incitement incitement, slander, kailangan sawatatahin natin yan.”
“Free speech, free speech – it's OK. But when it crosses the line and incites incitement or slander, we need to stop it.”
