MANILA — Deepfakes are considered the biggest threat to the Philippines’ 2025 midterm elections, an official from the Department of Information and Communications Technology (DICT) said on Saturday.

Deepfakes are Artificial Intelligence-generated audio or visual materials used to copy images or voices of real people, places or events. The technology has been used to create fake videos of personalities delivering misleading or manipulated messages.

Fact checkers in India and in Taiwan said they have noted the use of deepfakes during recent elections "to create mischief, sow the seeds of doubt, and make people question what they see and hear, reducing overall trust."

READ: Expert warns of escalation in use of deepfakes after release of fake video of Marcos Jr.

“It’s a tool that can cause the public to be misled because of that content so hindi natin alam ano ang totoo at ano ang hindi (we don't know what is real or not),” said Alexander Ramos, director of the DICT’s Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC).

“Ang preparasyon natin is to find a technology to detect and counter deepfakes… Inaayos pa ng mga supplier,” he said in a news forum.

(Our preparation for this is to find a technology to detect and counter

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) is coordinating with the DICT to police tech-driven schemes that may either discredit the upcoming elections or manipulate voters, Ramos said.

“We have to research technologies what can help them regarding this elections,” he said, noting that the CICC is currently conducting “studies on content monitoring.”

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“Yung issue of how do you determine the origin of this content that may be more than what is required. Gusto nila (Comelec) i-measure na din yung exposure ng kada candidate so we are focused on that,” he said.

(Comelec wants us to measure the exposure of each candidate, so we are focused on that)

The DICT has allocated P10 million for its annual subscription to an application that could aid the government in monitoring and detecting fake content online, Ramos said, without disclosing the name of the application.

“Ang application na ito is not only for election purposes but for a lot of practical purposes… kagaya ng kung mayroon destabilization, malfeasance,” he said.

(This application has a lot of practical purposes outside of election purposes. It can look at destabilization and malfeasance)

“Once na nag-aacquire tayo ng technology… pinag-aaralan din natin kung kaya natin mag-produce,” he said.

(When we acquire technology, we also study how we might produce it)

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The government is more inclined to subscribe to these anti-cybercrime technologies instead of procuring them due to the fast-paced development of these applications and devices, the CICC director said.

“Ang mga kriminal nag-aaral din. Tinitingnan nila pano nila mahahanapan ng butas ang mga ginagawa natin,” he said.

(Criminals are also studying this, They're looking at how they can poke holes in our defenses)

The agency is also looking into technologies that can help the government trace the original source of fake content online, he said.

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