Speech by President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. at the Oathtaking of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP) Board of Trustees and Standards Authority

Thank you to our Communications Secretary, Secretary Dave Gomez.

The newly elected KBP Board of Trustees and Officers; the newly appointed Standards Authority Directors; my fellow workers in government – and in that I actually include media practitioners; other distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

Good afternoon and once again welcome to Malacañang.

First of all, allow me to congratulate the new Board of Trustees and Standards Authority of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas.

Since it was founded in 1973, KBP has stood for the essentials of our democracy: free and independent broadcast media, responsible broadcasting, and enhanced public service by our broadcasters.

The oathtaking of KBP’s new leaders today affirms the role of broadcasting media in our society.

To strengthen the media and democratic institutions, we must first acknowledge the issues many of our media workers face.

The Philippines remains one of the most dangerous places for journalists.

In the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, we ranked 116th out of 180 countries and territories—depicting the Philippines as generally having a difficult and complicated media landscape.

The proliferation of misinformation and disinformation, particularly on social media, is also a great challenge to us.

Bilang lingkod-bayan na halos araw-araw na humaharap sa media, nauunawaan ko ang bigat ng inyong trabaho.

Hindi madaling magtanong, mag-ulat, at maglahad ng katotohanan—lalo na kung may panganib na kaakibat ito.

And that is why this Administration has made it clear that the safety and welfare of our journalists must be protected at all times.

Noong dumalo ako sa 50th Anniversary of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines, sinabi ko ang pamahalaan ay patuloy na maninindigan upang protektahan ang kapakanan ng mga mamamahayag.

Sisikapin din namin na makamit ng mga biktima at kanilang mga mahal sa buhay ang hustisya.

Kaugnay nito, hinihikayat ko rin ang mga grupo ng media na tulungan ang ating mga kababayan upang alamin at tukuyin ang totoo at kung ano ang fake news.

Kaya naman, patuloy nating pinapalakas ang mga mekanismo ng proteksyon at koordinasyon sa pagitan ng pamahalaan at ng sektor ng media.

Asahan naman ninyo na ang inyong pamahalaan ay gumagawa ng mga hakbang upang pangalagaan ang inyong kapakanan at puksain ang pagkalat ng maling impormasyon.

Recently, the Presidential Task Force on Media Security signed a memorandum of agreement with the National Bureau of Investigation to reinforce our fight against violence and threats against media workers.

It also partnered with the Public Attorney’s Office to provide legal services to our media personnel.

Tinitiyak natin na sa bawat banta, may gobyernong handang magtanggol sa inyo.

And aside from this, the DICT forged partnerships with Google in May 2025 and with Meta in February 2026 to strengthen content safeguards.

Additionally, the Presidential Communications Office signed a memorandum of understanding with print media – they’ve done that this month to implement “Oplan Kontra Fake News.”

This shall create a rapid-response system to counter the spread of disinformation.

We are promoting greater transparency and accountability in the bureaucracy. This supports our efforts to report facts – to have facts and truth reported.

The Administration has pushed for the passage of the Right to Information Act by including it in the LEDAC Common Legislative Agenda for the 20th Congress.

We have also launched the DPWH Transparency and Integrity Chain Portals and mandated all GOCCs to establish their own transparency portals to foster government accountability.

At upang matiyak na ang pondo ng bayan ay napupunta sa tamang lugar, mas inayos natin ang Project Digital Imaging for Monitoring and Evaluation o Project DIME upang makagamit ito ng mga satellite, mga drones, geotagging. Dahil sa modernong teknolohiya, kaya na natin i-monitor – kayang i-monitor ng [bayan] ang ating big-ticket projects.

Ang lahat ng ito ay para sa ating lipunan at ang pagpapalakas ng ating demokrasya.

Kapag malaya ang pamamahayag at madaling makakuha ng tamang impormasyon, mas nagiging bukas ang pamahalaan.

Kapag responsable ang pagbabalita, mas nagiging matalino at maayos ang desisyon ng ating mga mamamayan. At kapag naman ay nagtutulungan tayong lahat – ang media at ang pamahalaan – mas napapalakas ang ating demokrasya.

Kaya naman sa bagong opisyal ng KBP, inaasahan namin ang inyong patuloy na pamumuno sa pagpapalakas ng industriya ng broadcasting sa bansa.

Your continued push for innovation in broadcasting, in cooperation with the DICT and the NTC, gives us all confidence that the industry will continue to evolve. And at the same time, your coordination with the NTC will help us ensure that the industry rules remain fair and competitive.

So please continue to uphold the values that have guided you for more than five decades: the values of independence, responsibility, innovation, and, of course, service to our people.

Let us ensure all broadcasters can do their work safely and that our democratic institutions remain strong and accountable.

Lastly, in this time of global uncertainty, we lean on to our media to be the bearers of facts, to police abuse, and to be the voice of our people.

With the crises and the difficulties and the shocks that the world is providing not only the Philippines but the entire globe, it is more essential than ever that we combat fake news and disinformation.

In that way, we will be able to face those challenges that we are now beginning to feel and our people can much better – much better address the ways and means that we can mitigate the effects of the difficulties that we are seeing developing especially along the horizon.

And in this, the government is in great need of help of all the media practitioners so that we can get the valuable information about the interventions that we are undertaking, about the true situation of the state of the world and of our country. And so that our people, as I have mentioned, can make the proper decisions, can go to the right – can go to the right people for assistance, and are knowledgeable about what is available in terms of what help can be provided to them.

So, once again, maraming salamat at mabuhay ang KBP.

Mabuhay ang Bagong Pilipinas. [applause]

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