At least two Facebook pages created this year have joined a network of social media accounts that routinely red-tag members of the left-leaning Makabayan bloc—employing deepfakes and other AI-driven tactics alongside well-established disinformation techniques.

Gabay, which describes itself as a digital creator “guiding and empowering communities through knowledge and public awareness,” was launched on Jan. 21 and had produced 44 Facebook Reels as of April 14. It also created accounts on TikTok, X, Instagram and Threads in February.

The Katunayan TV Facebook page, launched in February, posts a mix of original content and material lifted from Gabay. Nearly all 15 videos on its TikTok account—also created in February—are reposts of Gabay’s Facebook Reels.

Makabayan is a coalition of progressive parties such as Bayan Muna, Anakpawis, Gabriela, ACT Teachers and Kabataan. It has long been the target of intense red-tagging—accused of being communist or terrorist-linked—including during the 2019 and 2022 elections.

Deepfake videos

Makabayan senatorial candidate France Castro and Gabriela first nominee Sarah Jane Elago, along with Kabataan party-list nominees Renee Co, John Peter Gonzales and Jose Paolo Echavez, and incumbent Rep. Raoul Manuel, appear in a deepfake video posted by Gabay on March 11, depicted in exaggerated poses–dancing, leaping, twirling or boxing–and labeled as recruiters for the New People’s Army, the armed wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines.

Fabricated audio

A Jan. 31 video depicted Makabayan senatorial candidate Teddy Casiño and several party mates appearing to say that Bayan Muna had been deceiving the public for two decades. One of the fabricated lines said:

Ang Bayad Party-list at 20 taong na kayo niloloko. Kaya ipagpatuloy niyo lang mga hunghang… (The Bayad [Paid] Party-list has been fooling you for 20 years. So go ahead and keep being fools…)

Doctored images, texts

The new Facebook accounts also manipulated text–a common disinformation tactic–to label Makabayan stalwarts as terrorists or advocating terrorism.

One doctored photo released on Feb. 18 showed Kabataan nominees and their supporters holding signs edited to read: 

Ang Kabataan ay para sa mga terrorista ng bayan (The Kabataan party-list supports the country’s terrorists)

Castro has appealed to the Commission on Elections and the Department of Information and Communications Technology to remove deepfake videos and misleading social media posts falsely linking her and other Makabayan candidates as connected to the NPA. 

Read the full story on FactRakers.org.

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FactRakers is a Philippines-based fact-checking initiative of journalism majors at the University of the Philippines-Diliman working under the supervision of Associate Professor Yvonne T. Chua of the University of the Philippines’ Journalism Department. Associate Professor Ma. Diosa Labiste, also of the Journalism Department, serves as editorial consultant.

FactRakers' fact-checks also include those produced by Tinig ng Plaridel — the official student publication of the UP College of Media and Communication — and the UP Journalism Club.

The name of the initiative, coined from the words “fact” and “raker,” is inspired by the term “muckrakers,” first used in the early 1900s by American president Theodore Roosevelt to express his annoyance at progressive, reform-minded journalists at the time.

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