The revelations in the Senate by retired General Raul Villanueva, former commander of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines or ISAFP, that high ranking officials of the Philippine National Police were in the pay of POGO bosses and that some of them received bribes in connection with the escape of Alice Guo should be a cause for concern for all of us.

Illegal POGO hubs in the Southeast Asia region are an industry worth billions of dollars. According to the United Nations on Drugs and Crime or UNODC, illegal online gaming bosses usually look for territories where the political environment is “conducive” and officials are “friendly” so they can operate with ease. Or if not, they have tons of laundered money at their disposal to fund dirty tactics like character assassinations and false flag operations in the political and criminal realms.

On the eve of his third SoNA where he was set to announce the ban on POGOs in the country, the President was hit by a character assassination operation led by the Hakbang ng Maisug-USA group.

The character assassination was orchestrated by no less than Claire “Maharlika” Contreras, who is well-known as the queen-purveyor of fake news, backed up by attorneys Harry Roque and Glenn Chong. The tool used was the so-called “polvoron” deepfake video which showed the image of a man, whom Maharlika claimed was President Marcos Jr., inhaling an illegal substance.

Uploads of the “polvoron” deepfake video were observed by the Social Media Intelligence Monitoring System of the National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-PH) to be seconds apart suggesting the use of either automated bot networks or a coordinated manual posting strategy.

We all know that POGO operators, adept in the technology of internet scams and cyber fraud, can effortlessly run such schemes. In fact, Sun Liming, the Chinese fugitive found in Harry Roque’s house in Baguio City, perpetrated an internet scam operation which duped 180,000 Chinese citizens of more than a billion dollars.

The Maisug-led character assassination narrative was simple. The video was one of the pieces of evidence to prove that President Marcos Jr. is a drug addict and is therefore not fit to rule and should resign or be removed from office.

Of course, the prime beneficiary would be no less than Vice President Sara Duterte. Curiously, we all know that up to today, Inday Sara has been silent on POGOs and their operations in the country.

Atty. Harry Roque must have been so desperate to push the Maisug narrative he flew all the way to the United States just to be part of the “launch” of the “polvoron” deepfake video and then went all out on social media platforms to convince his viewers that the “polvoron video” was authentic.

In one of his Facebook vlogs, Atty. Harry was asked by one of his viewers if he was not worried about facing cases for uploading the video, to which he replied with confidence, “Naku, ano naman kayang kasong iuupload mo dyan? Naging malinaw naman sa Korte Suprema na ang pagshare ay wala pong pananagutan yan.”

His reference, of course, was to the case of Disini et al. vs Secretary of Justice, where it was held that there is no law expressly punishing those that merely share, retweet, like or comment on a libelous post.

However, Atty. Harry Roque must have forgotten that he is also an officer of the court and therefore bound by the Code of Professional Responsibility and Accountability (CPRA). The Code expressly prohibits posting, sharing, uploading, or disseminating false statements, claims, or to commit any act of disinformation.

It was just last year that the Supreme Court set new rules in the CPRA regarding the responsible use of social media. The wisdom of the Supreme Court in setting these rules is indisputable. One can only imagine the danger if lawyers start to introduce deepfakes as evidence in legal and judicial processes.

PBBM created powerful enemies who would stop at nothing, including employing “false flags” — deception and the manipulation of events to push their political narratives. Certain elements who had been hurt or exposed following the raids on illegal POGO hubs may exaggerate or even stage crime incidents (e.g., kidnappings, terrorism, proliferation of drugs, etc.), violence and economic sabotage to make it appear that President Marcos Jr. is losing control and/or is really unfit to rule.

The “polvoron” deepfake video targeting the President, as a disinformation tool, was only the start. Today they are employing a tool, tomorrow they will use agents. These bad actors will not hesitate to create noise and chaos to destabilize and weaken the government of their enemy, PBBM and replace it with one who will “parrot” their designs, in short — A FRIEND.