OZAMIZ CITY, Misamis Occidental — Disinformation and fake news forced many local candidates here to limit their interaction with the voters during the 45-day campaign period.
Whether disinformation and fake news played a role in the May 9 elections is highly debatable.
Incumbent Congressman Diego Nonoy Ty of the National Unity Party lost to former Oroquieta City Mayor Jason Almonte in the race for the first district, Misamis Occidental in the last May 9 elections.
Ty and Almonte agreed to be interviewed in April about how they used disinformation, fake news, and “social media operators” against each other during the 45-day campaign period.
In Plaridel town, Ty prefers to stay inside Shang’s Resort, which he owned in Barangay Sta. Cruz feared something bad might happened to him and his family.
He, his family, and around 20 of his followers were holed up inside the resort after the flurry of disinformation and fake news have ramped up a hostile environment for him.
Ty had the front section of the resort covered with a wall of tarpaulin making it impossible for anyone from seeing what is going on inside the resort from the blue sea.
His opponent, former Oroquieta City mayor Jason Almonte, also lives the same lifelike Ty.
Almonte also lives inside the gamecock farm he owns in Oroquita City, which he turned into his campaign headquarters.
He too fears for his life and stays inside the farm with his followers, monitoring how his campaign is running through mobile phones.
Almonte and Ty have been living this way after a Misamis Occidental vice gubernatorial candidate, Lopez Jaena town Mayor Michael Gutierrez was shot in the head and killed by a sniper in Tangub City last December 23, 2021.
Ty, mayor of Plaridel town from 2010 to 2019 before winning his first term as a congressman in the first district of Misamis Occidental, lost his reelection bid to Almonte in the last May 9 elections.
The two politicians have been “heavy users” of social media in the lead-up to the May 9 elections and have their own stable of “socmed operators”
Ty said he has 10 “socmed operators” in his employ working directly for him.
“We publish them on Facebook and YouTube. We also air them on several radio block time programs in the local radio stations,” Ty said.
He said one of the disinformation they have against his opponent was to portray Almonte as “drug-dependent” and “sabungero.”
“We have Almonte at a disadvantage. This image portrays him in a very bad light,” Ty said.
Almonte and his “socmed operators” also spread disinformation against Ty on the local radio stations and on Facebook.
He said since involvement in drugs is a subject that voters were interested in, his “socmed operators” also made one against Ty.
“We (edited) a picture that showed Ty in the company with the late Ozamiz City Mayor Reynaldo Parojinog,” Almonte said.
Parojinog and 14 others including his wife Susan, brother Octavio Jr., and sister Mona were killed during a police raid on July 30, 2017. He was on the list of President Duterte as suspected drug lords.
Almonte said they printed posters of the picture and distributed it around Oroquieta City and the towns of Plaridel, Aloran, Baliangao, Calamba, Concepcion, Jimenez, Lopez Jaena, Panaon and Sapang Dalaga—that comprised the first district of Misamis Occidental.
Ty denied the allegation that he was a business partner of the late Mayor Projinog but with fact-checkers limited to the national issues in Manila, nothing stood in its way.
“I was never a partner. That was malicious propaganda against me,” Ty said.
While fact-checkers scrutinize disinformation and fake news in the presidential race, no one is around to check at the provincial and local levels.
Politicians hired their own crew of “socmed operators” among vloggers and journalists to create content or materials to make their online attacks against their opponents.
The 45-day campaign period on the provincial and local levels has been marked with mudslinging and allegations.
Social media has trickled down to the provincial and local levels and have become a nasty battleground.
In nearby Cagayan de Oro, incumbent Congressman Rolando Uy filed 11 cases of cyber libel against Councilor and radio broadcaster Zaldy Ocon for allegedly imputing that he was a drug lord during his radio program.
Ocon surrendered to the police in Bukidnon after a court in Cagayan de Oro found probable cause in the complaint. He paid P500,000 bail for his temporary liberty. (This story is supported by a grant from Internews)
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