Lacson: Ability to ‘maintain, create troll farms’ advantage of admin candidates in 2022

MANILA, Philippines — Administration candidates are at an advantage in the 2022 polls considering their ability to “maintain or create troll farms,” Senator Panfilo Lacson said days after he bared that an undersecretary has allegedly started to assemble troll farms against critics and possible opponents in the coming elections.

“They have definitely an advantage because of the proliferation of social media platforms and all the troll farms that are dominating the social media platforms, so definitely, the administration has a big advantage in this regard and it’s very obvious because they all have the resources, all the wherewithal to more or less ‘control’ the social media platforms,” Lacson said in an interview over ABS-CBN News Channel Monday.

“Yan ang advantage ng [That is the advantage of the] administration because they have all the resources to maintain or create troll farms,” he added.

Last week, Lacson disclosed that an undersecretary has allegedly begun organizing at least two troll farms in every province to discredit critics of the administration and possible opponents in the 2022 polls.

The senator opted not to reveal the name of the official, saying he will do so once his informant executes an affidavit.

“I’m trying to reach out to the person that he [undersecretary] contacted. Mag-execute ng affidavit yun then I will reveal who that undersecretary is….In due time, once I get hold of that affidavit, then I will reveal the name,” he said.

“We don’t know that [government money was used] and we don’t even know if this is sanctioned by Malacañang. Malacañang has already given out a statement to the effect that it could be the personal initiative of that government official,” he added.

The senator said he himself has been a victim of troll farms for airing critical statements against the administration.

“Basta’t nakapagsalita lang tayo ng medyo negative ng kaunti or critical, you’ll be bombarded. We’ve been through this before, alam naman natin, obvious naman yung troll farms,” he said.

(Once we say something a bit negative or critical, we’re bombarded. We’ve been through this before, we know this, the operation of troll farms are obvious.)

“One time I blocked an account e lahat sila nag-react ‘bakit tayong lahat bina-block ni senator?’ Di ba dapat pag blinock mo siya lang nakakaalam, ba’t lahat sila nagsalita. E ‘di iisa lang talaga silang grupo, they’re revealing themselves e,” he added.

(One time I blocked an account, many reacted ‘Why did the senator block us?’ When you block one account, that account should be the only one to know, why did many accounts speak up? That means they belong under one group, they’re revealing themselves.)

JE