Hilton Manila, Pasay City
August 14, 2023

In pursuit of the Administration’s commitment to address the pressing concern of misinformation and disinformation in the digital age, President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. joined the Presidential Communications Office (PCO), Department of Education (DepEd), Commission on Higher Education (CHED), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), and Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) in officially launching the Media Information Literacy (MIL) Project.

In his keynote address, the President raised that the digital landscape is both borderless and limitless wherein everyone, most especially the vulnerable sectors of society such as the youth, can be targets of fake news.

Pointing to the Commitment Wall where he joined key representatives of the event in signing their respective pledges, the President said that he wrote “Fight for Truth”.

“The first victim, the first casualty is truth. And we must allow everyone to be able to discern for themselves, we will help them, but people have to learn to be able to discern for themselves what is real and what is not, and what is propaganda, what is facts, what is data and what is speculation. These are all the things that we would like for people to learn,” he underscored.

“We cannot stop it…So we have to find a way to make sure that whatever the inputs our people are getting, they have the capability, they have the ability to discern between truth, speculation, propaganda and outright lies and that is the job that we are starting here today,” the Chief Executive continued, emphasizing the crucial role that the MIL Project will play in the fight against misinformation and disinformation in the internet age.

“I thank you all for being involved in this. It is immediate, it is urgent and although, I think that if we put our minds to it, there is a way to allow our people to be able to discern from truth and everything else,” President Marcos Jr. ended in his message.

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