Wazzup Pilipinas!?
August 7, 2025 | Manila, Philippines
In a nation already drowning in disinformation, a new, more insidious tide has risen — one engineered not just by trolls behind keyboards but by a hybrid political war machine: half-human, half-algorithm. This cyborg campaign is a relentless political operation designed to defend Vice President Sara Duterte and former President Rodrigo Duterte from legal and moral scrutiny — and to usher in a full-blown power resurrection by 2028.
What’s unfolding before our eyes is not just a public relations strategy. It is a full-scale psychological war to seize control over public perception, hijack democratic oversight, and hardwire loyalty through manipulation. At its center is an army of hyper-partisan influencers, AI-generated content, and paid keyboard mercenaries — masquerading as “true believers.”
In this war, truth is not just the first casualty — it is the intended target.
A Flip of the Script: From Vilifying Courts to Worshipping Them
Just five months ago, the Supreme Court was under fire from Duterte’s online supporters. They hurled insults, called the institution “useless,” and demanded that it free their embattled idol, Rodrigo Duterte, from an impending ICC arrest. But after the Court ruled Vice President Sara Duterte’s impeachment unconstitutional on July 25, those same mobs praised it as a bastion of fairness.
This wasn't simply a mood swing — it was a coordinated rewrite of public memory.
The online floodgates opened. “Sara is innocent,” posts declared, as if the Supreme Court had cleared her of all wrongdoing. They hadn't. In truth, the Court had only ruled on the technical process of impeachment — not on her guilt or innocence. But that didn’t stop pages like OPTIC Politics or propagandists like Rigoberto Tiglao from declaring the Dutertes vindicated and ready to reclaim Malacañang in 2028.
This was no accident. It was a weaponized form of narrative distortion — a cornerstone of the disinformation playbook.
The Five Pillars of the Duterte Disinformation Campaign
As revealed by a joint PCIJ investigation, the Duterte defense mechanism rests on five sinister tactics, each as deceptive as it is devastating:
Dismiss and Distort the Facts
Deflect and Distract from the Core Issues
Emotionally Manipulate the Public
Spread Conspiracy Theories
Flood the Public Sphere with Manufactured Support
Let’s break them down — and expose how deep the rabbit hole goes.
1. Dismissal and Distortion: “Innocent Until Viral”
After being impeached for threatening the President and misusing confidential education funds — including payments to obviously fake names like Mary Grace Piattos and Carlos Oishi — Sara Duterte’s allies were quick to paint her as not just innocent, but heroic.
Their strongest argument? That the Commission on Audit had supposedly issued “clean” opinions about her budget.
But here’s the reality: a COA opinion does not equate to a legal absolution. Worse, ₱73 million of Sara’s funds were disallowed, with another ₱164 million flagged. Crucially, these “aliases” she claimed were security assets were never backed up with sealed documents required by auditing rules.
Still, influencers like Zaza Flores and Mark Lopez repeated the same talking points on loop, flooding Facebook with “proof” that wasn't proof at all — just propaganda packaged as rational discourse.
2. Deflection: “What About the Other Crooks?”
Rather than answer questions about their own misconduct, Duterte allies deftly point fingers at everyone else.
Why focus on Sara’s alleged corruption, they ask, when President Marcos himself enjoys ₱4.5 billion in confidential funds? Why worry about junk food aliases when rice prices are rising?
The problem with this logic? It’s a red herring. Two wrongs don’t make a right — and issues of public theft and unaccountability can and must be scrutinized together.
Yet by muddying the waters, Duterte's defenders aim to dull the moral outrage, scatter the narrative, and confuse a public already weary of scandal.
3. Emotional Manipulation: From Villain to Victim
The Duterte narrative has now taken a messianic turn. Sara is no longer just a public servant facing questions — she is now a martyr, betrayed by the Marcoses, persecuted by critics, and suffering for the Filipino people.
It’s a masterstroke of psychological warfare: flip the script so completely that the impeached becomes the savior. Dismiss all critics as “elitists,” paint the process as politically motivated, and compare Sara to Leni Robredo — even though Robredo was never linked to billion-peso anomalies.
The result? A hardened base that sees accountability as persecution and justice as treason.
4. Conspiracy Thinking: The World vs. the Dutertes
And then comes the pièce de résistance: global conspiracy.
In this narrative, Sara Duterte’s impeachment is not just a local political reckoning. It’s a grand plot by the Marcos camp, the American “deep state,” liberals, communists, and anyone else you want to throw into the stew of paranoia. The endgame? Supposedly to eliminate the Dutertes before 2028.
These claims, echoed by low-credibility accounts en masse, mimic the strategies used by Donald Trump’s supporters abroad — importing American-style disinformation to local shores.
It’s fiction, but it’s effective. Why? Because it feeds on fear, distrust, and a longing for simple explanations in a chaotic world.
5. The Cyborgs Among Us: AI-Powered Propaganda
Perhaps the most alarming trend is the automation of deceit.
Deepfakes, AI-generated man-on-the-street videos, and synthetic influencers flood timelines with staged content made to look authentic. One such video, made by “Ay Grabe,” showed AI interviews supporting Duterte and mocking the impeachment process — widely shared by Senator Bato Dela Rosa and Davao’s acting mayor, Sebastian Duterte.
These videos were labeled “entertainment,” but spread like wildfire as gospel truth.
This is no longer just misinformation — it’s algorithmic gaslighting.
The Real Fight: Memory, Meaning, and 2028
Make no mistake: this campaign is not about today’s controversies. It is about shaping tomorrow’s presidency.
Through selective memory, performative outrage, and techno-enabled deception, the Duterte political machine is laying the groundwork for a 2028 comeback. Every troll post, every AI video, every distortion of truth isn’t just content — it’s strategy.
And it’s working.
Many Filipinos, overwhelmed by repetition and numbed by emotional baiting, now question the very institutions meant to protect them. The courts are biased. The auditors are blind. The media is paid. The only truth left is the one served by influencers who pretend to be patriots but are paid to lie.
Conclusion: The War We Cannot Ignore
What’s at stake here is far more than just one impeachment case or one political family. It’s the integrity of our collective reality.
When trolls become truth-tellers and AI becomes arbiter of what’s real, democracy doesn't just falter — it fractures.
The Dutertes' cyborg influence operation may be invisible to the naked eye, but it is everywhere: in your feed, in your comments, in your conversations. It lives on automation, thrives on outrage, and survives through your silence.
If we allow it to grow unchecked, 2028 may not just be another election.
It may be the end of truth itself.
Wazzup Pilipinas remains committed to exposing disinformation in all its forms.
Stay critical. Stay awake.
Ross is known as the Pambansang Blogger ng Pilipinas - An Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Professional by profession and a Social Media Evangelist by heart.
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