In recent weeks, there has been real action taken to stop the spread of fake news from those who call themselves influencers.

In one case, a police officer named Francis Steve Fontillas had been posting comments on his social media account questioning the chain of command, stating that he was not duty-bound to follow orders he did not agree with.

The Philippine National Police placed him under preventive suspension pending a neuro psychiatric test Fontillas had to undergo.

The PNP said the young cop may face inciting to sedition charges and may be removed from service.

Someone must have reminded him that as a law enforcer, he had to remain impartial and non-partisan. 

He has since publicly apologized.

He may or may not be forgiven by his superiors, but Fontillas has almost certainly learned a lesson the hard way. 

A couple of bloggers or vloggers also learned that their words matter, especially if there is no basis in their claims.

One of the two female fake news peddlers was reduced to a sniveling mess during a recent Congressional hearing. She had cockily declared that she would give anyone who dared grill her a hard time.

She didn’t. 

MJ Quiambao as she likes to be called is said to have a large following, and despite her claims to being fair and impartial, there is little doubt that she is a Duterte diehard.

There’s nothing wrong with this, as she has every right to support any political leader whom she deems fit. But when she spreads outright, provable lies as what happened at the Quad committee hearing last week, Quiambao appeared ready to have a heart attack when her breathing became labored.

She had been forced to apologize twice, and to admit that she was not exactly aware of the difference between what is legal and what is not.

The lawmaker who grilled her – I will not mention his name, but will say that this gentleman once sued me not for libel, as is usually the case, but for distributing smut. Long story, folks – took exception to Quiambao’s unsubstantiated claims that some victims of extrajudicial killings were fake.

Anyone and everyone who knows what happened during the tokhang era of the previous regime knows that the killings were not only real, but were unjustified in most cases. 

One of the better known personalities of the previous administration has been taking to social media of late, and she has been crying about the death of free speech in the country.

She has reportedly been invited to the Quad committee hearings, but has refused to show up thus far.

One previous presidential spokesman did land in the front pages over the weekend when she claimed that China had been paying influencers on what to say in their social media accounts.

Trixie Cruz was Bongbong Marcos’s first spokesperson and she also faced the House where she admitted being one of the country’s bloggers who had gone to China on a junket, supposedly to discuss social media practices.

It was an all-expense paid trip, including hotel and airfare, and quite possibly with a handsome stipend to boot.

Her fellow bloggers came home from that trip as believers in Chinese propaganda.

Maybe, like a certain candidate for the Senate in the coming elections, they will agree that the West Philippine Sea was a creation of some lowly government bureaucrat, and that it is the South China Sea’s boundaries that must be followed.

They will then cite some fictitious history books or maps indicating that the land mass known as the Republic of the Philippines was really nothing more than a province of China in the distant past.

Incidentally, I have to admit that a long time ago, when I was the managing editor of a national broadsheet, I was invited to China on an all-expense paid junket. I was in good company too, as almost  all the national dailies were similarly invited for a weekend of exposure to the new China.

No stipend, though, but we were treated to some of the best meals I’ve ever had in Beijing. 

Xi was nobody at that time, and I could believe that China wanted nothing more than for our two countries to co-exist harmoniously.

We were not even asked to write about our trip, but of course we all did. We were, however, under no obligation to present China as a modern day euphoria. For us, it was just a country that was undergoing massive changes, modernizing at breakneck speed.

But I digress.

Now we know better. Now we know that China is more than willing to spread fake news, and hire local guns for hire to present their best foot forward.

The countless incidents in the WPS where China’s coast guard has been harassing Filipino fisherfolk and government officials then releasing news that they did no harm and always followed global maritime law is proof that China is the enemy.

Sadly, a number of Filipino influencers – I absolutely abhor that word – are more than willing to serve as China’s mouthpieces if the price is right.

This now extends to national figures, who count on social media to tell the Filipino people, specifically the electorate, that they are the only leaders worth supporting.

I can disregard the cheap influencers who do the rounds of resorts, hotels, and restaurants in search of freebies. I actually feel sorry for them, as they are no better or worse than the showbiz reporters and editors who are always looking for envelopes at the end of press events.

What I do consider as being as close to scum as one can get are the bloggers and vloggers who willingly spread malicious lies, and are proud of the fact that they make big bucks out of their dirty livelihood.

In one very recent incident, police in Cebu raided the house of one such vlogger. She pleaded to not be arrested and offered to just delete all her posts.

She gave the same excuse that corrupt government employees use when caught red-handed.

Just trying to earn a living, sir.

Suck hogwash.

At least we in print and broadcast media know enough to set sound rules and have regulatory bodies to watch over us.

These influencers are by and large a bane to society, and for better or worse, they will be around for many years and decades to come.

I can only hope that laws will be passed to not just regulate these influencers, but have proper punishments for those who cross the line.