Leni Robredo Reflects on Delay in Fighting Fake News
LENI ROBREDO – Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo has candidly admitted that ignoring online trolling in the past may have been one of her biggest political miscalculations.
Former Vice President and now Naga City Mayor Leni Robredo admitted feeling a sense of regret over how she and her team handled the surge of fake news and online trolling during the early years of her national political career.
In the second part of her interview on “Beyond the Game” on Bilyonaryo News Channel, which aired on Wednesday, February 11, Robredo candidly reflected on what she considers one of her missteps, failing to immediately confront the wave of misinformation directed at her.
“Ako, none, e. Siguro if there ever was and I’m not really sure if that can be branded as a regret, was how we responded to the trolling,” said Mayor Leni.
She explained that when online trolling began gaining traction in 2016, it was a relatively new phenomenon in the Philippine political landscape.
“Because when the trolling was started, it was new—noong 2016, the trolling was very new. Para it only started during the elections.”
At the time, Robredo and her team believed that false narratives would eventually fade on their own. They assumed that the public would not easily believe information that was clearly untrue.
“So kami, ano kami, high level. Parang sabi namin don’t mind them. Because false narratives would not be sustainable, in the end, people would not believe them.
“Pero how wrong we were because we did not do anything about it,” Mayor Leni said.
However, she acknowledged that many people did end up believing the misinformation, and by the time they decided to push back, significant damage had already been done.
“Parang a lot of people, bought into the false narratives that were being peddled. And when we started responding to them, parang it was so late already. Naalala ko, I started being a Vice President, 2026. We only started responding to the fake news [on] 2019.
“Kasi naisip ko, bakit ko pag-aaksayaan ng oras, hindi naman totoo.”
Looking back, Robredo said they later sought advice from experts, especially during the 2022 elections, and learned that uncorrected lies can quickly become embedded in the public discourse.
“That was our line of thinking pero looking back, especially when we were trying to make sense in the election already in 2022, we were consulting with some people who are experts in the field. Parang ‘yon ‘yong sinasabi nila na kapag may kasinungalingan [at] hindi mo kaagad kinorrect, parang papasok na siya kaagad sa ecosystem and hindi na rinig ang voice mo.
“So talagang ang tao, hindi mo mabe-blame pero paniniwalaan ‘yun,” Mayor Leni concluded.