First of 2 parts
“Sana po hindi makarating ‘yan sa Bicol (I hope this would not reach Bicol),” one Facebook user who appeared to be a retired teacher in Camarines Sur commented on a video posted by Facebook page Bicol Headlines.
“Dae man po sana mangyari yan, maski saing lugar. Magdarasal po kita gabos (I hope that does not happen anywhere. Let us all pray),” another commenter responded. “Kasi garo na nangingibabaw mga kasamaan (Because it seems like evil is prevailing),” she added.
Both comments were reactions to a three-minute video that claimed that Pampanga kingpin Bong Pineda intends to set up an Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub in the province with the support of four local personalities whose photos were featured in the video thumbnail.
Posted and boosted on Facebook on July 14, 2024 — while a Senate committee was investigating the involvement of POGO operators in human trafficking, online scams, and other crimes — the video drew a significant amount of attention and reaction among Bicolanos.
The four individuals accused of being financed by Pineda share one thing in common: they are running against the Villafuerte dynasty, which has dominated CamSur politics since the 1940s. The four politicians denied the accusations through their respective statements and interviews.
It is not the only video circulating against these politicians. A number of pages targeting Bicolano audiences were also posting similar content. Collectively, these pages have spent almost P1 million boosting propaganda content on Facebook alone from January to December 2024. These generated a total of 151,979 reactions and a staggering 20 million views for the period.
Allegations of links between Pineda and the Villafuerte rivals seem to be circulated primarily through these pages. While LRay Villafuerte did allude to his rivals having a big time “financier,” he has not directly mentioned Pineda. But there had been instances in the past when LRay accused Pineda of involvement in illegal gambling in the province.
Local academics studying politics and media communications say this digitized version of traditional mudslinging is now rampant in local politics with the prevalent use of social media, in particular, as the 2025 elections approach.
While working on this story, Rappler tried to get the statement of the Villafuerte clan but they have not yet responded as of writing. We will update this story if and when they do.
Disinformation has long been weaponized by politicians in the form of mudslinging and “kuwentong barbero” (barber’s tales), said Mary Joyce Bulao, a political analyst currently pursuing a doctoral degree at the Australian National University.
A former chairperson of Ateneo de Naga University (AdNU) Social Science department, Bulao has long been studying the local elections in CamSur. Propaganda has already been part of every politician’s campaign strategy even before the advent of social media, she said.
Online political disinformation, Bulao described, is merely the “digitization” of mudslinging that politicians verbally say in sorties.
The four local personalities who, Bicol Headlines claimed, will help Pineda set up POGO operations in the province are Bong Rodriguez, Fermin Mabulo, Arnie Fuentebella, and Philip Fortuno.
The barrage of online attacks against the four men came as no surprise to Bulao, who has been observing developments in the local political scene. After all, the four are currently running against members and allies of the powerful Villafuerte clan.
Two of the men — Rodriguez and Fortuno — are considered political neophytes.
Rodriguez, who became known locally after he served as regional campaign manager of Leni Robredo during the 2022 elections, served in various government offices from 1995 to 2005. Rodriguez continued to work in the private sector from 2007 to the present.
Fortuno, a former military officer, authored several books on military operations and national security.
Rodriguez is currently in a head-to-head gubernatorial race against Luis Raymund “LRay” Villafuerte, son of the late Villafuerte patriarch Luis, who spent five decades of his life as a politician in the province before his passing in 2021 at age 86.
LRay is currently serving his third and last term as 2nd District representative of CamSur since 2016. He has been a politician for over two decades since his three-term governorship in CamSur from 2004 to 2013.
Like his father before him, LRay also groomed his sons for politics. The clan has been playing musical chairs over key elective positions in the province for decades now. Both younger Villafuertes have taken their respective turns on the gubernatorial chair: Miguel Luis “Migz” served as governor from 2013 to 2022, while youngest son Vincenzo Renato Luigi, is the incumbent governor from 2022.
Of the other rivals, Fortuno is vying for a 5th District representative position against the incumbent Migz.
Mabulo is the incumbent municipal mayor of San Fernando in CamSur and currently running as 2nd District representative candidate against Luigi. The last individual mentioned in the misleading Bicol Headlines video is incumbent 4th District Representative Fuentebella who is seeking re-election against actor-turned-politician Marco Gumabao. Gumabao belongs to the same slate as the Villafuertes.
The scale of the reach of the attack posts sets them apart, in terms of impact, from traditional mudslinging.
The video linking Pineda to the CamSur politicians failed to mention any evidence that can support its claim of the above-mentioned politicians’ engagement in online gaming operations. It only offered clips from various news reports on POGOs. For this reason, it was fact-checked and flagged by Rappler on Facebook for spreading false information.
Despite this, a quick check on Meta’s Ads Library, a comprehensive database for ads transparency, will show that the Bicol Headlines video gained over 2.1 million views after it was boosted twice with budgets ranging from P15,000 to P40,000 per ad.
Views do not necessarily mean unique users. For context though, the number of views generated by this single video ad alone is comparable to around half the registered voters of the Bicol region which had a total of 3.9 million registered voters as of 2022. It far exceeds the number of registered voters of the province of CamSur, which was 1.3 million in the last 2022 elections.
(Note: Meta’s data does not show provincial breakdowns. The Comelec has yet to release provincial voter breakdowns for the 2025 elections.)
It is not the only piece of content attacking the four local candidates that Bicol Headlines has posted. Meta’s Ads Library dashboard shows that Bicol Headlines has boosted at least 26 malicious political content. All of the 26 are paid ads boosting a total of 17 posts against a candidate or supporter of Rodriguez’s camp.
Bicol Headlines is also not the only page that has been posting these attacks against the personalities mentioned. Other pages on Facebook posting and boosting similar content in 2024 include Bicol News, Bicol Overview, and Baretang Bikol.
While investigating the posting and boosting behavior of these four pages, Rappler found additional pages posting similar content and interacting with the original four pages.
Before the July 14 ad, Bicol Headlines boosted a post on July 3, 2024 calling the politicians “candidates for sale” and linking them to the alleged illegal gambling operations. Bicol News, Bicol Overview, and Baretang Bikol also continued to boost posts against the opposition.
A month before the video was posted, on June 12, 2024, Reforma CamSur, the political party fielding the four politicians, created its official Facebook page and started promoting its political line-up.
The specter of illegal gambling has been raised from time to time as an election issue in these parts. It is a murky issue at best.
While online ads are accusing the Villafuerte rivals of involvement in illegal gambling, however, case studies have also documented the Villafuerte clan’s involvement in jueteng before then-Naga City mayor Jesse Robredo took office in 1988. It was one of the reasons why the late interior secretary parted ways with his uncle Luis. In 2012, Luis denied the jueteng allegations, saying that no one has ever accused him of that.
Fuentebella, one of the politicians mentioned in Bicol Headline’s boosted video of alleged links with POGO and Pineda, wondered why they were in the same frame with the Pampanga kingmaker. Apart from the political circus, he suspects that it might be connected to the rivalry for the possession of an STL franchise in CamSur. The congressman, however, did not directly mention the parties involved.
STLs are legal, with operators being awarded franchises by the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO). In January 2024, LRay and three other CamSur representatives urged President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. to revoke the franchise of Everchance, an STL operator in CamSur, claiming that it is involved in illegal gambling operations.
“Garo may muyang magkua katong prangkisa (It seems like someone wants to grab the franchise),” Fuentebella said in an interview with a local radio station in Naga City.
The Villafuertes too have been at the receiving end of online attacks and criticism. At the height of Storm Kristine which left many parts of the province flooded, photos and videos of the Villafuertes vacationing in Siargao circulated online.
LRay denied the claim in a Facebook post on October 23, saying that these are fake news attacks against them. He also clarified that their photos in Siargao were taken before the storm and that they were already back in CamSur before Kristine devastated the Bicol Region on October 22.
Despite his denial, a number of Facebook pages posted Siargao-related memes, throwing shade at the Villafuertes and criticizing how members of the dynasty responded in the aftermath of the disaster. These included FTTM, Nutribun Republic, Bantay Nakaw Coalition, and iMPACT Leadership.
Except for the Bantay Nakaw Coalition which spent P1,000 to P1,500 to advertise the post bearing the Siargao photos, however, the other pro-opposition pages did not appear to have boosted their posts. Bantay Nakaw also paid not more than P1,500 to boost each of the three other criticisms against Villafuertes’ disaster response, data from the Ads Library show.
Yet, while some pro-opposition accounts may have boosted some attacks, the pro-Villafuerte pages were overwhelmingly spending more.
Following the circulation of the Siargao photos, Bicol News boosted a post on October 25, 2024 for amounts ranging from P10,000 to P15,000. It accused Rodriguez of being behind the “fake news attacks” against the Villafuertes.
Bicol Overview also boosted a post with an edited graphic accusing Rodriguez of using “pro-Robredo pages” to attack the Villafuertes. It was advertised with a combined amount of P30,000 to P40,000.
Other than its harm inflicted on the targeted politicians, propaganda’s impact stretches to spreading twisted truth that complicates voters’ decision-making during elections.
It’s an uphill battle, Sheila Tabal, a media communications professor from AdNU said. Even the academics and journalists, she pointed out, are getting overwhelmed in debunking lies online with the uncontrollable dissemination of this kind of disinformation.
“Those who will see, they will be confused, ‘Oh, he’s taking illegal drugs so he shouldn’t be voted for.’ They would lose their trust towards the person,” Champagne Carpio, a political science professor from AdNU, said while referring to the past propaganda against one of Villafuerte ‘s rivals.
It is a way to perpetuate people in power, Bulao pointed out. She noted that those who have been in power for a long time usually have the resources to carry out such operations. “So, they can do this a lot more than others can. Therefore, they are more likely to win against smaller politicians who do not have access to the same big amount of resources,” she said.
“If the same politicians will win, that means there’s no sense, right? They will not be held accountable even if they don’t perform during their term,” Bulao pointed out.
Ultimately, Bulao said, ordinary citizens and voters are the ones at the receiving end of the long-term impact of mudslinging and political disinformation. It leaves people with little options, she said.
“People can’t do anything because they (whoever is presently in power) will win. So, that’s where the problem comes in,” the political analyst added. (To be concluded) – 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.
