Category: social media

That ‘vangag’ video

Back in July 2024, the first time I saw it on Facebook, I laughed. Siya ba ‘yan? At ganoon ba talaga suminghot ng cocaine? At saan, kailan, na-shoot ang video na ‘yan?

The very same SONA day it was released by U.S.-based DDS vlogger Maharlika on social media, the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) pronounced it a “poorly designed deepfake video that can easily be identified using simple tools openly available online.” https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/

The next day in a joint presscon, the NBI and the PNP shared the results of their “video spectral analysis”: the ears of the man in the video [the tragal notch and the antitragus, both on the outer parts of the ear] and those of BBM are different. https://verafiles.org/

Brig. Gen. Ronnie Francis Cariaga, Anti-Cybercrime Group (ACG) director, said they had the same findings after an artificial intelligence detection tool revealed significant discrepancies in the facial features of Marcos and the person in the video, such as the size of the ears, shape of the eyes and nose and sideburns.

Citing their analysis, Cariaga said the video is fake and was created using artificial intelligence (AI). https://www.philstar.com/

VERA Files Fact Check went for an independent assessment, reached out to AI detection experts of the Deepfakes Analysis Unit (DAU) part of the India-based Misinformation Combat Alliance. Three tools — Sensity AI, HIVE, and TrueMedia — found the video to be suspicious, bearing traces of manipulation at multiple points of the video’s run-time. Read ‘Polvoron’ video crumbles, AI experts find traces of facial manipulation.

The DAU also shared analysis from their partner GetReal Labs, which was co-founded by University of California-Berkeley professor Hany Farid and his team specializing in digital forensics and AI detection.

“[T]he human ear is a fairly decent biometric. Because a face-swap deepfake is only eyebrow to chin and ear to ear, the ears can often be used as indication of a fake. Attached is a two-frame animation (1 screenshot from the video, 1 from President Marcos’s recent state of the nation address) in which you can see some differences in the shape of the ear. The structure of the face and the hairline also seem quite different.”

That was in Sept 2024 pa when Vera Files confirmed the PNP and NBI findings. Not that it ever stopped the DDS from screaming “b(v)angag!” at every opportunity, accompanied by calls for BBM to resign or for people power to oust him, like father like son. The most consistent and strident calls coming from the vlogger who released it, and former RRD spokesman now self-exile Harry Roque.

Not that they were ever able to raise the requisite crowds clamoring for the same, but they never dropped the advocacy either. In fact, the DDS patriarch’s surprise rendition to The Hague raised the pitch of the vlogger and the exile to hysterical heights so it did not surprise that the latest TRIcomm hearing on vloggers and fake news saw fit to acknowledge and go public with an affidavit by vlogger Pebbles Talakera that related what she knew of the video “para itama ang mali” — basically that Roque is behind it daw.

Of course Roque has denied it, accusing government of a “political witch hunt” and Pebbles of “fake news.”

Ang totoo: Taong 2022 pa ay usap usapan na sa vlog ni Maharlika ang polvoron video. … Isa lang ang sigurado: Ka-jamming ni Marcos Jr ang kumuha at source ng video, at ang taong ito na malapit kay PBBM ay ibinigay ang video kay Maharlika. https://www.facebook.com/HarryRoque/

Maharlika and Roque insist that the video is authentic, “no evidence of editing,” according daw to forensic experts who prefer to remain unnamed except in a court of law. Maharlika has long been daring the BBM admin to take her to court, charge her with cyberlibel, or something like that, if they’re so sure it’s fake. And many observers even agree, na dapat patulan na, or it might fester, or something like that.

Umm, but that would be, like, sponsoring her debut in mainstream media to which she has been denied entry so far — nauna pa nga si Pebbles. Which is just as well because hindi pang mainstream media ang lenggwahe niya, na nagiging medyo bastos at bulgar lalo na pag may kinakagalitan siya at na-ha-highblood. Wouldn’t it be wiser to keep her in her place?

Of course, it would be a different matter if she were to come back and face the music here. Mainstream media tiyak ang landing niya [bleep bleep]. At kung bitbit niya ang AI forensic experts nila ni Harry, it would be a blast to see them facing off with Vera Files‘ DAU experts.

I’d place my bet on Vera Files. I suspect that Maharlika’s “puting ahas” was pulling her leg, and she fell for it. OR maybe she’s always known that it’s a deepfake but it’s good enough for destab purposes? and for the DDS?

The Galileo test #fake news

ATTY. TRIXIE. Minsan po ang tinatawag na “fake news” ay time-bound: posibleng totoo ngayon, bukas ‘di na totoo. https://mb.com.ph/2025/3/21/

She cited Galileo who was punished by the Catholic Church for saying that the earth revolves around the sun, when the religious wisdom in the 1600s was the other way around, i.e., the sun revolved around the earth.

ATTY. TRIXIE. … naparusahan po si Galileo. Pero 600 years later, nag-apologize ang simbahan dahil totoo pala siya. https://www.abs-cbn.com/

Actually, it was 359 years later when the Church acknowledged the mistake. The astronomer was condemned by the Inquisition in 1633. Pope John Paul II formally apologized for the “Galileo Case” in October 1992, in the first of many formal apologies during his papacy. https://content.time.com/time/

But that was all the way back in medieval times. These days, wala akong maisip na fake news that would pass the Galileo test, i.e., yung mapapatunayang true pala, based on facts based on evidence, in some future time.

Halimbawa, yung tinalakay sa TriComm hearing —  marami daw pulis na nag-resign nung dinakip si Digong, at nang-wa-water cannon din daw ang PH forces vs China sa West Ph Sea — ay parehong bagsak sa Galileo test, walang ebidensiya, dahil hindi nangyari. Fake nga. Fake commentary. Forever and ever.

Though clearly Atty. Cruz-Angeles is on another wavelength, maybe on the level of: Digong was kidnapped, taken against his will, in violation of Ph law — na maaari pang mapatunayang totoo? But that’s not “fake news”, that’s “biased commentary”, and we all indulge, one way or another, and if when developments prove us right, e di wow.

The Galileo example is even more problematic in the reverse. Just a few days ago, director Daryll Yap was charged with two counts of cyberlibel at the Muntinlupa RTC over his teaser for the Pepsi movie that “attributes” the “crime” to Vic Sotto who, of course, denies it. Tipong “fake news” daw?!?

And yet, back in 1982, we all believed it to be true, just because it was all over the martial law tabloids and broadsheets. In effect, kabaligtaran ng nangyari kay Galileo. Totoo noon, fake news ngayon. Only in da Pilipins?!?

Atty. Claire on EDSA & media #Resibo

Dati ko na siyang napapanood, nung una sa Teleradyo, “Usapang de Campanilla” yata yon, taking calls, giving legal advice. Now on YouTube her “Batas with Atty. Claire Castro” vlog has been one of my regular stops. She’s always worth checking out because she focuses on an issue at a time, making himay himay from the perspective of a lawyer, and always citing her sources, no matter how time- or tech-consuming.

She never struck me as pro-BBM, and she says she didn’t vote for him. But she supports the government daw, and when asked to help fight the stream of fake news from the DDS as election campaigns heat up, she said yes. Of course antiBBM vloggers and pfundits wonder if Atty. Claire is ready to lie for the Marcoses if push comes to shove, I suppose. She’s quick to assure that she will decide on the basis of hard evidence. As in, where’s the evidence that the prez had anything to do with the Tallano-gold story. Nasaan ang resibo?

Or where’s the evidence that the prez has downgraded EDSA Day, it’s still a “special” working holiday and people are “encouraged to join any event to commemorate” the special event. To this no one  followed up with, pero ma’am, paano yung mga may trabaho? Although Christian Esguerra, for one, did push back, and Atty. Claire did not disappoint.

Esguerra. Anong sagot niyo roon sa sinasabing under BBM lalong nalilibing ang spirit of EDSA? https://www.youtube.com/

Atty. Claire.  You are encouraged to join any event … walang paghahadlang.  … Mahirap sabihin that the president is trying to  erase the memory of EDSA People Power…sa utak ng mga Pilipino. Otherwise, baka pinagbawal yan… wala siyang idnidiktang ganoon….

Siguro we should not put the blame on the president if ever ma-e-erase ang memory ng EDSA.  Tayong taga-  media, if we really want to instill (EDSA) in the minds of the people, the youth, dapat nagpapalabas tayo ng mga  movies, programs sa mainstream TV, ng mga kuwento, para hindi nakakalimutan.  Hindi puro teleserye.

Itong (past) 37 (39 actually) years, ang nangyayari lang, walang pasok.  After walang pasok, paano ba i-co-commemorate ng mga tao. Hindi natin napapanood kung among nangyari sa EDSA revolution. Wala kang napapanoood. So the media should do that. … And they should not blame that to the current administration. Dapat panahon pa ni PNoy merong ganyan every year.

Na totoo naman. While on the one hand the Marcoses worked hard to diss and dismiss EDSA via social media, on the other, the mainstream media, academe, and government, and the oligarchs behind these institutions, have never cared to really talk the truths about EDSA — how it happened, why it happened — because it would mean revealing EDSA as a template for Change, Nonviolent Change; it would mean talking about the civil disobedience and the crony boycott that preceded and continued into EDSA, and how the economy was reeling, and the people were so engaged and ready to take to the streets.

Radio and TV talkshows and programs and docus about the 10 days of boycotts and barricades, based on indisputable sources would mean empowering the people to do as we did in 1986, and, I imagine, to do EDSA even better next time by shooting (so to speak) not just to oust a Marcos but for systemic, deep-seated, changes in the economic and social and political order. All anathema, of course, to the ruling elite.

PAHABOL

Mga resibo, mainit-init pa: “Bongbong evades, lies about EDSA.” Miguel Reyes of the Third World Studies Center and Vera Files tracks BBM’s comments on EDSA through the years, since 1989, mostly dismissive. “Nothing to celebrate …. Bigo ang EDSA 1 …” at kung ano-ano pa. Kung maniniwala ka sa kanya, e di wow, kalibing-libing nga.

 

 

#TeamChiz

What I hate most about political vlogs, whether anti-DDS and/or anti-BBM, is the laughter — canned and līve — na para bang ginagawang katawa-tawa lang ang matitinding problema ng bayan. Ang daming dapat pagtuunan ng pansin na puwedeng itulak as election issues, kahit man lang the China issue — given Trump, kanino ba sila at bakit — and of course the anti-dynasty provision of the Constitution that Congress has been ignoring, shrugging off, since 1987, and so now we have five more Tulfos running… The impeachment as issue is pure distraction. It will happen in good time.

The good, the bad, the petty: Chiz and the Sara impeachment #SocialMediaDiscourse
Katrina S.S.

I do not doubt that there is a whole lot of reasons to continue discussing the impeachment of VP Sara Duterte, specifically whether it is right or wrong that Senate President Chiz Escudero is doings things at his own pace, and whether that puts the whole impeachment at risk and / or risking the possibility of getting an acquittal for VP Sara. I tend to think that SP Escudero is far smarter than all of this. He’s not new to this circus, and certainly has engaged long enough with politics in this country to know not to put even his own political career at risk by a failure to thoughtfully and carefully flesh things out, anticipate outcomes, adjust as things unfold.

And if your biases against Escudero don’t cloud your judgment, he actually made a lot of sense at that February 20 press con, talking about how the Senate, in fact, is taking the necessary steps it can take at this point in time, owing to the fact that the Senate is not in session, and many Senators are busy campaigning either for another term in office, or for other elective positions. He is firm in the refusal to rush the proceedings, or to call a session, and denies either side of the political spectrum to pressure him into doing or saying anything: “I will not dignify nor listen to partisan legal opinions or positions for or against the impeachment of VP Sara.”

At this point in our political discourse, that pretty much gives Escudero the license to ignore everyone. For good or bad, partisanship is the rule these days, not the exception.

And this surfaces in the most simple of ways. Say, the superficiality of discourse that will, by default, mention what Escudero looks like as opposed to what it is he is saying. The worst part is that this kind of pettiness exists across the vlogging spectrum—from the Duterte supporters, to the ones who insist they are better “than those vloggers”. All of them, across the board, frame their conversations about Escudero’s (in)actions relative to what he looks like—Heydarian constantly cracks jokes about microblading, Llamas insists the white shirt is about Escudero wanting to “show off” his “boobs”, Esguerra asks: naka-white shirt ba? in reference to Escudero. Meanwhile, Duterte supporters are calling out Escudero for wearing that shirt, too, insisting that it is disrespectful of his position, as is his earring. On Facebook and YouTube, a superficial search on Escudero will surface content that tags him in relation to his eyebrows.

It is undeniable that this is the state of political discourse in this country, one that remains as counterpoint to mainstream media, where there remains a sense of what good interviews are about, and what political analysis still is. That is: not petty or superficial, not at all about what people look like.

Oh but liberal macho punditry knows no bounds, and revelling in the freedom of social media platforms, they can use the same kinds of tools the vloggers on the Duterte side use. Say, using a tone of arrogance in speaking to our government officials, always certain about what should be done, and almost ordering politicians around: this is what you should do. And any politician who decides otherwise was just scared, or “dinaga”. Because how else to explain that their punditry was ignored?

But given the tone and tenor of this kind of political analysis, I can imagine politicians not just ignoring what is being said across the spectrum of liberal-Duterte vloggers; I can imagine them deliberately and pointedly refusing to do what is being said by these critics and vloggers and pundits and analysts.

In a February 21 episode of Facts First, after framing the discussion of Escudero’s press conference on the impeachment trial in what he was wearing, Esguerra labelled it as “konting katuwaan lang.”

This is what they need to get. When the liberal “katuwaan” is exactly the same as the “katuwaan” that’s done by the Duterte side, then that makes for dominant social media discourse. It doesn’t matter if it’s a fraction of what you do, neither does it matter if you do it to everyone—you do it at scale, all the time, every time, the small things become normalized. We should all know this by now after six years under Duterte.

Is a sense of humor unwelcome? No, but real political humor is a skill set, and not one that these guys have. This is not humor, it’s empty laughter. It’s laughter that sacrifices what is intelligent and critical, for what is small and petty. And while we expect this from the Duterte side who are grasping at straws, and will really stoop so low as to talk about what people look like as opposed to what it is people say, the rest of us on the purportedly “better” “more critical” side, should know better.

“Meron pa ‘kong standing invitation kay Senator Chiz,” Esguerra said, after Llamas framed the conversation on the Senate President’s white t-shirt.

May the Senate President know better than to ever say yes to that interview. He doesn’t need it. ***