Tolentino bares evidence of China troll farm to discredit PH gov’t

Sen. Francis “Tol” Tolentino(Bibo Nueva España/Senate PRIB)

MANILA, Philippines — Sen.  Francis Tolentino on Thursday exposed an alleged  “hidden and sinister” operations of China against the Philippines using a troll farm.

Proof of this is an alleged service agreement between the Chinese embassy in Manila and Infinitus Marketing Solutions, a Filipino-registered corporation based in Makati, the senator said.

Tolentino presented a copy of the said service agreement, dated August 2023,   during the hearing of the Senate committee on special committee on Philippine maritime and admiralty zones, which he heads.

“The work of Infinitus is to provide keyboard warriors,” he said in Filipino.

Aside from the contract,  Tolentino also presented to the committee a copy of a check, which supposedly showed that the Chinese embassy paid Infinitus P930,000 for its services on Sept. 11, 2023.

All these proved that China funded a troll farm to discredit not only the Philippine government but also certain personalities in the country.

“This is not normal public relations. Neither is it a normal PR campaign. What’s being done is to openly provide information and convey the policies of the Chinese government,”  Tolentino said.

“The money that the Chinese embassy paid was for something hidden and sinister. It was to finance a troll farm. It’s a troll farm — a covert disinformation and influence operation against the Philippine government and the Filipino people,” he added.

According to the senator, Infinitus even boasted in its monthly report of the hundreds of social accounts it created, using fake personas.

“They pose as ordinary Filipinos — teachers, students, trades, members of the Armed forces — each fake persona pretending to be one of us,” he pointed out.

“So this means that the accounts appearing on Facebook are not real people. These are trolls—pretending to be teachers, pretending to be OFWs. Unfortunately, our fellow Filipinos are being misled,” he added.

Though the documents indicated that the contract and payment were made in 2023, Tolentino said these Chinese-sponsored operations are still ongoing and do not only involve Infinitus.

“There’s much more. I have a whole folder of documents with me,” he said.