THE Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) warned the public against politicians who may be using the agency to draw attention to themselves as the 2025 election draws closer.
DSWD Undersecretary Edu Punay told state television PTV said there will be many candidates with various “gimmicks” during election season.
The DSWD official gave the statement days after the Office of the Vice President claimed that some of the beneficiaries they referred to the agency were allegedly turned away in social welfare offices, ABS-CBN News reported.
Punay also said the DSWD is not “politicking” and will not be used by politicians.
He also said there is no directive from Malacañang or DSWD Secretary Rex Gatchalian for the DSWD to be “selective” in giving aid to the needy.
All beneficiaries seeking cash aid from the DSWD need to undergo screening and interviews as mandated by auditing rules, Punay said.
This process needs to be honored to avoid previous allegations that the DSWD only caters to individuals who are backed by certain politicians, he said.
While the OVP said that “some clients referred by the OVP have been left unattended by various Regional Offices of the DSWD,” Punay underscored that beneficiaries do not need endorsements from any politician to avail of the agency’s services, ABS-CBN News further reported.
The official said during the pandemic, the DSWD was accused of distributing its special amelioration program fund to relatives and supporters of barangay and local officials.
The Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) meanwhile said it is working with artificial intelligence (AI) providers to stop the possible spread of deepfakes, which could be used to influence the 2025 midterm elections.
Speaking to ABS-CBN News, DICT Secretary Ivan John Uy said the government was aware of the dangers of deepfakes or images, audio and videos that were edited or generated using artificial intelligence. Experts warn deepfakes that clone politicians’ images, videos and voices could mislead voters ahead of the elections.
“How do you battle that? Well, we’re working with the AI providers. So, who are the AI providers? OpenAI, ChatGPT, Google. So, there are a lot of AI providers now that are consulting the governments. Not just individual governments, but in the international community on how to address this,” Uy said at the sidelines of the 2024 Singapore International Cyber Week.
One way to identify these deepfakes, Uy said, is the embedding of watermarks to show that the image or video is edited.
“Because they’re the ones providing the AI platform. So, if they used their AI platform and made a deepfake, there’s a watermark. You are viewing a deepfake. Or you’re viewing an AI-generated content. So, the public, you can watch it, but there’s a warning. There’s a watermark,” he said.
The Commission on Elections earlier said it was coordinating with the DICT to police tech-driven schemes that could either discredit the upcoming elections or manipulate voters.
The DICT has allocated P10 million for its annual subscription to an application that could aid the government in monitoring and detecting fake content online, according to the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center.
Uy noted that in Singapore, a law allows social media posts to be “fact-checked” by government. He said that while the original post remains up, there will be a link or message that shows the government’s own version of events.
He noted that in some cases, misinformation could be just a portion of a statement without providing the full context.
“For example, you expressed an opinion or a comment that the government’s feeling is not true. So, now, your content is there. But next to your content, they have a fact-check that the government issued. This is the version of the government which we believe is factual. So, now, your content is not alone. Your original content is not deleted. You can see the answer and the other side of the coin and it’s up to you now to exercise your judgement. In other words, right to reply,” he said.
