House officials demand crackdown on China misinformation pages spreading WPS propaganda

Inside the Philippine House of Representatives, lawmakers are pushing for a coordinated government crackdown on what they describe as Chinese propaganda pages flooding social media with false narratives about the West Philippine Sea. The target is specific: Facebook pages like Media Unlocked, which House officials say systematically distort facts about maritime incidents and Philippine sovereignty to serve Beijing's interests.

Robert Ace Barbers, the House impeachment adviser and prosecution panel spokesperson, has become the public face of this demand. He wants the National Telecommunications Commission to treat these pages with the same aggressive enforcement used against pornographic websites—blocking them outright, making it unpatriotic to follow them. The comparison is deliberate and pointed. Barbers argues that the NTC, which has the legal authority to order internet service providers to block certain domains, should use that power here. At minimum, he says, the Facebook page should be flagged for spreading false information.

The specific content driving this anger centers on a video that claimed a Philippine vessel "intruded" into what it called Chinese territorial waters at Bajo de Masinloc, a feature the Philippines knows as Huangyan Island. The video framed a confrontation with a Chinese Coast Guard ship as a staged performance, suggesting the Philippine vessel deliberately cut across the Chinese ship's path to provoke a water cannon response—a response that CNN cameras happened to capture. The video's conclusion was blunt: Manila wanted to look tough for its American ally but failed. The incident occurred during the 59th ASEAN Foreign Ministers' meeting, which U.S. officials attended.

Barbers has a secondary proposal: before taking down such pages, government agencies should produce detailed video explainers that break down the misinformation frame by frame, so Filipino youth encountering this content can learn to distinguish fact from fabrication. He frames this as an educational imperative, not just censorship.

Leila de Lima, the Senior Deputy Minority Leader from the Liberal Party-list, condemned the page for peddling lies about Philippine sovereignty. She called the content an echo of Chinese propaganda designed to justify Beijing's hostilities and territorial claims. De Lima wants the Department of Information and Communications Technology and other agencies to monitor such pages closely and implement urgent measures to stop the spread. She also called for stronger collaboration between the government and digital platforms to keep false content off the internet. In Filipino, she added a sharper point: if China continues harassing the Philippines and claiming territory it doesn't own while spreading lies, the government must become more serious and aggressive in educating Filipinos—especially young people—about why defending Philippine territory matters.

Terry Ridon, the Committee on Public Accounts chairman from the Bicol Saro Party-list, expanded the scope. He wants the Department of National Defense and National Security Council to flag all social media pages spreading misinformation about Philippine rights in the West Philippine Sea, then formally petition social media platforms to remove them. The push, in other words, is not just for blocking but for a whole-of-government response that treats digital disinformation as a national security concern.

What remains unclear is whether the NTC's legal authority actually extends this far, or whether such blocking would survive legal challenge. The commission's powers are real but limited. Still, the House officials are signaling that they expect their government to treat Chinese propaganda with the same urgency it reserves for other threats to the nation's digital space and public understanding.