President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. urged Filipinos to always fight for the truth to avoid becoming victims of disinformation and misinformation.

The President made the call during the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between key government agencies and the launching of Presidential Communications Office’s (PCO’s) Media and Information Literacy (MIL) project on Monday.

In his speech, Marcos emphasized that the truth has always been the casualty of misinformation and disinformation, which affects the capability of netizens to discern for themselves between factual and speculative information.

“What I wrote there is, ‘Fight for the Truth’,” Marcos said, referring to the message he wrote on the commitment wall, which was signed by the partner agencies just before the MOU signing between the PCO, Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG), and Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD).

“And this is all that we are talking about and this is as much as we are talking about. What we are fighting for is the truth because what is ? the very first casualty of all of these ? sometimes sinister, sometimes just mistaken, misguided activities ? the first victim, the first casualty is the truth,” he added.

While he recognizes the good and bad information online, Marcos said that the government will ensure to equip people with the knowledge to discern between truth, speculations, propaganda, and outright lies as he emphasized that the youth are the most vulnerable sector as far as fake news is concerned.

The President echoed the observation of PCO Secretary Cheloy Velicaria-Garafil on the need to direct the attention to the young people as they are the most involved in social media platforms.

“We also direct our attention to young people because they are the most involved. They are the ones who consider being online, working on the Internet as part of their life. It’s like breathing to young people,” the chief executive said.

“But we must give them the tools to be able to look and see what are these things that we are reading. Totoo ba ito? Should we really be doing something about it? Should I worry or should I just not worry whenever ? because this is what people are telling me?” he added.

Recalling an incident during the campaign period about the campaign allegedly based on fake news, Marcos emphasized the need to equip, not only the children but also the entire citizenry with the tools to be able for them “to tell what is important, what is not, what is relevant” and to know the sources of information.

Marcos also underscored the importance of knowing the sources.

“The first step that we can do for our people and to say know your source. Tingnan niyo kung saan galing. Kung ano ‘yung kuwento na ‘yan. Baka nag-inuman lang ‘yang mga ‘yan tapos kung ano-ano ang naisip, sinulat sa Internet. Naniwala naman tayo. ‘Di ba? Kailangan ay bantayan natin ‘yun.” the President said.

Before ending his speech, the chief executive called for everyone’s involvement in fighting misinformation and disinformation. Presidential News Desk