Senator Bato dela Rosa faced criticisms after sharing an AI-generated video involving a “fake” interview of students about Vice President Sara Duterte’s ongoing impeachment case.
Originally uploaded by the Facebook page “Ay Grabe” on June 14, the video showed supposed students expressing support for the Vice President. The clip was tagged with the hashtag “AI” and the page’s bio also notes that its content uses artificial intelligence (AI).
The following day on June 15, Senator Dela Rosa reposted the video on his verified Facebook page with the caption, “Mabuti pa ang mga bata, nakakaintindi sa mga pangyayari. Makinig kayo, mga yellow at mga komunista!”
Netizens quickly called out the senator, with some educating him how to distinguish AI-generated content from real footage.
“With all due respect Sir. Did you know that this is AI generated?” a Facebook user commented on the post.
“Someone needs to tell him it was AI,” wrote another.
“Even senators can be fooled by AI 🤦🏼♀️”, one reacted.
“Kailangan na NGAYON ng batas para sa pagreregulate sa generative AI lalo na’t ginagamit na ito sa pulitika!”, an X user urged.
In response to the backlash, Senator Bato defended himself for sharing AI-generated content, “I don’t care if this post is AI-generated or Manobo-generated because I am not after the messenger, I am after the message. So please don’t shoot the messenger without reading the message that he delivers.”
Following the social media frenzy around the senator, Malacañang reminded government officials to avoid spreading false or misleading information online.
Palace Press Officer Claire Castro said that public officials have a duty to be responsible with the information they share.
“Ang pagse-share ng mga katulad na ganyan, muli disinformation, fake news, hindi po sana nanggagaling sa mga opisyal ng pamahalaan. Nakakaduda, mas nakakawala ng tiwala kung mismo sa matataas na opisyal nanggagaling ang mga disinformation at fake news,” Castro said in Malacañang briefing on Monday, June 16.
She continued, “Responsibilidad nila ito, dahil ang bawat salita na binibitawan nila sa taumbayan, lider sila, iyan ay totoo sa pandinig at pananaw ng bawat isa. So, dapat maging responsable sa anumang sine-share nila na impormasyon sa ating mga kababayan.”
While Castro said that an apology isn’t necessary, she urged the senator to at least acknowledge that the video was AI-generated and not real.
As of writing, the controversial post still remains on Senator Bato’s page, and has since garnered over 30,000 reactions and more than 3,000 shares on the platform.
