SUMMARY
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The Department of Finance (DOF) defended the hiring of a public relations practitioner tagged by Facebook as the guy behind a fake news, pro-Duterte propaganda network.
In a statement on Tuesday, June 22, the DOF said the contract of Nicanor “Nic” Gabunada Jr. is “legal and aboveboard.”
Finance Undersecretary Gil Beltran, head of the DOF’s Bids and Awards Committee, said Gabunada was hired to assist in “developing brand and communications strategy for the DOF to aid in the swift passage of the remaining packages of the Comprehensive Tax Reform Program plus other priority government measures.”
Gabunada will also “align system-wide communications covering the DOF and its attached agencies.”
Beltran added that Gabunada’s work would not involve setting up accounts on social media platforms.
But at the same time, Beltran said Gabunada will be “assisting the DOF in the production and development of communications materials for television, print, and digital channels (social media and website), including the identification and coordination with third-party communications partners, whenever needed.”
“Gabunada was tapped to help raise public awareness over, and support for, the Duterte administration’s remaining priority measures such as its pending economic bills and proposed capital market development reforms that are being pushed by the DOF in the third and final session of the 18th Congress,” Beltran said.
Gabunada’s consultancy fee amounts to P909,122.40 for six months. The DOF said the rate is “reasonable” for the “highly technical service” and that it “complies with all procurement laws and rules.”
Gabunada was President Rodrigo Duterte’s social media manager in the 2016 elections.
He was also tagged as the operator behind a pro-Duterte fake account network which Facebook took down in March 2019. The network was comprised of 200 pages, with about 3.6 million followers following at least one page and about 1.8 million users in at least one group.
In Facebook’s blog post about the takedown, head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said, “Although the people behind this [coordinated inauthentic behavior] attempted to conceal their identities, our investigation found that this activity was linked to a network organized by Nic Gabunada.”
Gabunada, at the time, told ABS-CBN that he was “surprised” by the takedown, and called it “unfortunate.”
Gabunada’s legal team, represented by lawyer Reginald Tongol, issued a statement on Monday, June 21, saying there was “nothing inappropriate” in the decision of the DOF to grant its “service contract for consultancy” to their client.
“What is illegal and violative of our client’s data privacy rights is the unauthorized disclosure of his personal data for no other purpose but to make him and his family easy targets for threats and ridicule,” Tongol said.
“Our client will explore all legal actions against these persons,” added Tongol, saying that it is “malicious to keep bringing up the solely business prerogative of Facebook in tagging and maligning our client and connecting it with this totally separate and aboveboard agreement.” – Rappler.com
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