In BARMM, rising disinformation as polls near worries group
DAVAO CITY—Election monitoring group Lente stressed the need for a more focused and systematic voters’ education to combat poll-related disinformation expected to peak as next year’s elections near.
Brizza Rosales, technical and reform consultant of Lente, said the spread of disinformation, expected to peak two or three weeks before the May 12, 2025, elections, would add up to the challenges in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (BARMM), whose people will elect its first set of leaders next year.
Rosales also raised concern over the use of artificial intelligence (AI) for the elections when she spoke on Sunday during the training on Reporting the first BARMM Parliamentary Elections organized by the Media Impact Philippines and the Mindanao Institute of Journalism.
She said 2024 had been an election year in countries like Taiwan, Thailand and India but AI had not been effectively weaponized in these countries, where election commissions were very active in policing those who spread false information.
She said that in the recent elections in Thailand, those who spread disinformation were publicly shamed, while Indonesia has been very active in debunking false information.
But in the Philippines, “we are worried how [AI]s will be used [in the upcoming elections] because Pinoys are very creative,” Rosales said.
In BARMM areas, which already had a history of violence, disinformation would add to the challenges especially in areas not easily reached and had been under the control of some political groups or clans.
She said that there would still be plenty of time for fact-checking groups to band together.
“Its spread would be expected to peak weeks before the elections, as everyone would already be too busy, and disinformation would spread faster than our efforts to get the right information,” she said.
“But now, we still have time [to] take down even before the campaign period,” she said.
Threat
She stressed disinformation does not only occur online but also offline, especially in far flung communities that are controlled by some interest groups. Thus, she said, systematic and sustained public information and education have to be done.
This developed as still unidentified men lobbed a fragmentation grenade in front of the office of a BARMM lawmaker Saturday night.
Bangsamoro Transition Authority (BTA) Parliament Member (PM) Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., currently on official travel in Malaysia, said the grenade was lobbed at 10 p.m. in front of his BTA office along Moon Street, Zenaida Subdivision, Barangay Rosary Heights 8 in Cotabato City.
“Nobody is hurt but the message is clear,” said Sinolinding in a message to reporters, hinting that the grenade had something to do with his eyeing a seat in the BARMM parliament next year.
Aside from being a BTA PM, Sinolinding also serves as the head of the Ministry of Health (MOH) in the BARMM.
“The motive can be related to my work,” he said. “We have been implementing changes in the MOH and secondly, it might also be related to politics,” Sinolinding added.
Police found pieces of the fragmentation grenade and its safety lever near the blast site.
Police Col. Michael John Mangahis, Cotabato City police director, said they were studying the closed-circuit television footage taken from the blast site.
