Disinformation has become a bane of the Digital Age, with perpetrators smearing reputations, destabilizing governments and bullying people.
Apart from the use of digital technology, however, disinformation can be spread directly by people who allow themselves to be used for providing false information, whether orally or through signed statements.
In the past months, former security escorts have publicly claimed to have delivered suitcases containing fantabulous amounts of cash to top government officials including lawmakers and President Marcos himself, his son Sandro and cousin Martin Romualdez.
But the testimonies have swung wildly, with names added or subtracted depending, it seemed, on the audience and the alliances of the former escorts’ handlers.
Eighteen mostly ex-Marines claiming to have served as bodyguards of former Ako Bicol party-list congressman Zaldy Co engaged in this “dagdag-bawas” or padding and shaving type of storytelling.
Several of the 18 complied with the demand of the Office of the Ombudsman for individual affidavits. After assessment, the ombudsman announced that it had found some merit in the affidavits of only four of the 18, implicating former House speaker Romualdez and several others.
The four recently retracted their statements. This week, former Marine Orly Guteza, who has been missing since facing the Senate Blue Ribbon committee on Sept. 25 last year, also retracted his sworn testimony hurling similar accusations against Romualdez. Guteza claimed he did this in exchange for cash and scholarships for his children promised by Sen. Rodante Marcoleta and former congressman Michael Defensor.
At the height of the COVID lockdowns in 2021, the Duterte administration and the 18th Congress already saw the need to increase penalties for perjury under oath and providing false testimony as evidence.
Republic Act 11594, signed on Oct. 29, 2021, amended Articles 183 and 184 of the Revised Penal Code, which had provided penalties ranging merely from a minimum of four to six months to a maximum of six to 28 months in prison for perjury and false testimony.
As amended, the penalties were raised to at least six to eight years and, if the offender is a public official or employee, a maximum of 10 to 12 years plus a fine of P1 million and perpetual disqualification from public office.
Punishment should be imposed not only on those who lie under oath, but on anyone who instigated them to do so. And the law must make sure that no one makes money from lying.
People are confused enough, unable to tell real news from fake. Considering what can be undermined by those who lie under oath, the penalties need to be raised further.