MANILA - Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque on Wednesday stressed that the administration does not sponsor the spread of "fake news" to advance its agenda.

“For sure and to be clear, fake news as is known today should find no place as a matter of governmental policy. Enlightened citizens should be able to pick out chaff from grain and appreciate what good journalism is about,” Roque said in a statement.

He said this as he sought to clarify his statement in his Jan. 8 briefing where he said: “Kung walang fake news, hindi natin malalaman kung ano iyong true news (If there is no fake news, we will not know what true news is).”

“What I said earlier that without fake news we would not know what is true news should not be taken as governmental encouragement of fake news. Far from it,” he said.

The administration has been criticized for allegedly using so-called online “trolls” to spread “fake news” aimed at opposition figures and to intimidate critical voices.

The issue was the subject of a Senate hearing on Tuesday, where press freedom advocates attributed the proliferation of "fake news" to President Rodrigo Duterte and administration officials.

Rappler CEO Maria Ressa called out the Duterte government’s move of “weaponizing” the internet to silence critics and spread “fake news” as “patriotic trolling.”

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Veteran journalist Ellen Tordesillas, meanwhile, said "fake news" in the country is primarily spread by Duterte himself.

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"Fake lies are concocted to deceive the public. They confuse the public, disempower them from making informed decisions," she said.

"And the worrisome part of this is that most of the sources of disinformation is being perpetuated by government officials on taxpayers' money. And the number one source of fake news is President Duterte himself," Tordesillas added.