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Rainier Allan Ronda - The Philippine Star
February 12, 2026 | 12:00am
Senator Raffy Tulfo urged the Department of Agriculture (DA) to strengthen farmer and fisherfolk cooperatives, reforms in the DA’s Registry System for Basic Sectors in Agriculture (RSBSA), and faster delivery of government support to the sector during a Senate committee hearing on agriculture on January 26, 2026.
STAR / Ryan Baldemor
MANILA, Philippines — Sen. Raffy Tulfo grilled officials of Meta yesterday over the tech giant’s failure to swiftly remove a malicious deepfake photo of President Marcos that has been circulating on Facebook for over a week.
During a hearing of the Senate committee on public information and mass media, Tulfo lost his temper after learning that a manipulated image, which featured the President topless and inhaling from a pipe to imply drug use, remained accessible online despite being posted as early as Feb. 2.
“Why not take it down immediately?” an irate Tulfo asked Meta executives.
“You know for a fact that that’s a lie, that’s fake news. Why would the President of the Republic of the Philippines be disrespected like this and you allow it?” he added.
Berni Moestafa, Meta’s head of public policy for the Philippines and Indonesia, attempted to explain the platform’s moderation system, telling the panel that action on the content “has already been in process.”
The explanation further enraged Tulfo, explaining that it frustrates him that Facebook refuses to take down “obvious” lies immediately and still needs to establish that these pieces are disinformation.
Lawyer Gio Tingson, Meta’s head of public policy in the Philippines, clarified that the company had actually removed the original links reported by the government.
“Upon reporting all the links, the URLs that had this content were immediately taken down. We did an initial sweep after it was first taken down,” Tingson said.
He explained that the image Tulfo’s team found was likely a repost from a different account, and he requested the specific link so Meta could immediately review and remove it.
Information and Communications Technology Secretary Henry Aguda corroborated Meta’s claim, noting that the platform acted swiftly on the initial links that were flagged.
However, he pointed out that Meta’s moderation remains highly “system-driven” and inconsistent, depending on who the government is dealing with.
Aguda further explained that the sluggishness of social media giants in curbing viral fake news is inherently tied to their business models.
He contrasted Meta’s response time with TikTok, which he said acts faster on takedown requests because its ad revenue structure differs.
Meanwhile, the Department of Education yesterday lauded the inclusion of education and child welfare and protection measures in the 21 priority bills under the Legislative-Executive Development Advisory Council. — Bella Cariaso
