AS THE BATTLE for truth intensifies ahead of the 2025 midterm polls, a Bayan Mo, iPatrol Mo (BPMP) officer encouraged Bedans to embrace fact-checking as a “21st-century skill” during the “Halalan 2025: i-Tsek ang Boto” workshop on January 24, coinciding with the first day of Pista festivities, at the Pamanang Bedista.

Spearheaded by the College of Arts and Sciences (CAS) Student Council (SC) and Office of the Prefect of Student Affairs (OPSA), in partnership with ABS-CBN, the workshop centered on voter education in the 21st century, covering a variety of topics such as “the evolution of the use of technology in elections, election laws and campaign finance, developing the skill of fact-checking, and practical tools for fact-checking information.”

This event is part of the covenant signed between San Beda University (SBU) and ABS-CBN last January 14, marking the University as one of ABS-CBN’s partners for Halalan 2025 with the goal of ensuring a “peaceful, clean, and orderly” midterm election.

Fact-checking as the 21st-century weapon of the electorate

In an interview with The Bedan, Ms. Dabet Panelo, the Chief Content Aggregator and Training Officer of BPMP, the citizen-journalism arm of ABS-CBN News and Affairs, highlighted the growing threats posed by misinformation and disinformation in the digital realm, emphasizing the role of every news organization’s job to ensure the accuracy of information. 

“So every day, in everything that we do, in every news report that we do, we make sure that we verify very carefully… So there are extra steps already that we take kasi dati wala namang ganyan, pero ngayon kasi meron na,” she said.

In verifying the accuracy of information, Ms. Panelo mentioned how the “fast-evolving technology” has been one of the biggest challenges in recognizing and combating false information as it complicates fact-checking efforts. 

Moreover, for Ms. Panelo, the world, not just news platforms, is responsible for keeping pace with the fast innovations. “You have to keep pace—‘Yun ‘yung challenging. Sobrang dami niya. Kahit na ‘yun ‘yung work as journalists, we cannot do it alone. That’s why we have to actually go to mga barangay, nagpupunta kami sa mga schools to teach people, to let them actually understand na there is this information disorder, and how do we combat this together.” 

Speaking further about information disorder, Ms. Panelo noted how such a  was made with the “intention of deceiving the public,” therefore bringing perils to the democratic exercise. 

“People behind the information disorder in the world, not just in the country but around the world, are doing this for a living. Sinasadya nila ito eh. To keep themselves in power or to put some people in power,” Ms. Panelo further explained, noting the prevalence of disinformation in Philippine elections.

Accordingly, she introduced tools to combat fake news and the rising disinformation with the use of modern tools such as “search engines and geolocation” during the workshop, which nonetheless stressed the need for individuals with access to such tools to “engage in fact-checking.”

“It should be, once you are on social media, once you have your own cell phone, you consume content from social media, fact-checking should be a way of life,” said Ms. Panelo.

Perceiving gaps in election laws and campaign spending

The workshop also covered discussions relating to election laws and campaign finances through the parted knowledge of Atty. Rona Ann V. Caritos, the Executive Director of Legal Network for Truthful Elections (LENTE)—one of the established election monitoring groups in the Philippines.

In the discussion, Atty. Caritos highlighted a “loophole in campaign spending regulations,” where candidates can gain unfair advantages by exceeding the campaign spending limit before the campaign period starts. Since campaign spending rules only apply once the campaign period starts—not when candidates file their Certificate of Candidacy (COC)—this allows them to gain an unfair advantage. 

Atty. Caritos suggested addressing such loopholes by “defining when a candidate is recognized and when campaign spending should start.” “Simple lang, we go back to the old definition of a candidate under the Omnibus Election Code. Kahit papaano, that would cover the time from the filing of the COC up to the start of the campaign period.”

Moreover, she enumerated how the biggest challenges in election monitoring are “combating campaign overspending and promoting transparency in campaign financing” through the proper legal avenues of prosecution. 

“Madami naman tayong nakikitang violations. Marami na ring reports actually. May mga documents na si COMELEC (Commission on Elections) na makikita mo talaga ‘yung violation. But unfortunately, if you take a look at the track record for the past few years, or so many years, wala pa talagang nakakasuhan for violations of our campaign finance law, except for a number,” said Atty. Caritos.

This year’s elections will feature over 18,000 elective government positions, including 12 senatorial seats, available to candidates who have successfully filed their COCs to the COMELEC.

With this, as part of the stipulated partnership between SBU and ABS-CBN, the “TApat na serbisYO: A Senatorial Debate 2025,” organized by The Repvblic (TR) and the CAS OPSA, will be held at the Jonathan Sy Auditorium this Wednesday, February 12.

 (with Samantha Calderon and Jasmine Casadores)