Presidential Communications Operations Office (PCOO) Secretary Martin Andanar assured Sen. Bam Aquino that he will reach out to online groups supporting President Duterte and convince them to stop spreading misinformation and hate speech on social media.

“Would you be willing to talk to owners of these websites, a number of them carrying President Duterte’s name, and convince them to stop spreading misinformation, disinformation and hate speech against critics of the President,” Sen. Bam told Andanar during the Senate hearing on fake news.

While Andanar said that pro-Duterte websites and Facebook pages were established during the 2016 campaign when he was still a member of the mainstream media, the PCOO chief has committed that he will reach out to the members of the original core groups behind the websites and persuade them to stop spreading fake news and hate messages.

Sen. Bam also urged the PCOO chief to police his own ranks, saying blogs written by some of his employees in their private capacity hurt the image of the agency.

“Sana siguruhin niyo na ang miyembro ng inyong opisina, hindi gumagawa ng misinformation, disinformation and hate speech,” Sen. Bam told Andanar.

In addition, Sen. Bam called on both supporters and detractors of President Duterte to stop throwing hate speech at each on social media, saying the environment has become horrendous.

“Iyong batikos walang namang problema, iyong kritisismo wala ring problema, pero kapag humahantong na sa peke, sa panloloko o sa mararahas na pananalita, sana magkaisa tayo na itigil na ito,” Sen. Bam stressed.

During the first hearing on fake news on October 4, 2017, Sen. Bam shared a list of websites that produce fake and misleading news stories, a number of which used the name of the president.