PCO: Marcos deepfake a ‘serious’ matter; foreign policy may be affected

MANILA, Philippines — The viral deepfake of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. could have affected the Philippines’ foreign policy, said an official from the Presidential Communications Office (PCO) on Wednesday.

On Tuesday night, the PCO released a statement debunking a viral video that simulated Marcos commanding the Armed Forces of the Philippines to act against another country.

“It’s a big news because it’s foreign policy that’s affected there,” said Asec. Dale De Vera in a mix of English and Filipino on the Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon public briefing.

READ: Palace debunks viral deepfake video of President

While the PCO did not specify which video it was, a video from the YouTube channel Dapat Balita went viral for using artificial intelligence to simulate President Marcos’ voice to declare war on China over the West Philippine Sea.

READ: One Tech Tip: How to spot AI-generated deepfake images

When asked if this is the first time that a deepfake of the President was created, De Vera said that there have been deepfakes before.

“As far as I know, parang hindi naman ito yung first time, but ito ‘yung serious na ginawan ng deepfake video kasi yung iba is parang playful, songs lang, kumakanta, sumasayaw but this one, it’s very different kasi iba na yung topic,” he said.

(As far as I know, this is not the first time, but this one is serious because the others were just playful in nature, just songs where he is singing and dancing, but this one is very different because of the topic.)