Camarines Sur Rep. Migz Villafuerte is backing President Marcos’ push for broader and stronger infrastructure to digitally empower Filipinos, and said the House committee on information and communications technology (ICT) will support this future-proofing government agenda by pursuing legislation to beef up our defense against artificial intelligence (AI)-generated cyber fraud and other digital scams.
Villafuerte said that topping the legislative agenda of this ICT committee, which he chairs in the 20th Congress, is a proposed legislation against duplicitous schemes such as deepfakes or AI-generated fakery as well as other forms of cyber fraud that have become endemic with the increasingly pervasive use of digital technology.
Villafuerte said one of the measures that the ICT committee will tackle is House Bill (HB) No. 3214, which aims to check the spread of AI-generated fraud by imposing strict rules on the use of deepfakes.
“President Marcos is spot on in stressing that while AI offers breakthroughs for our country to become digitally empowered, inclusive and future-ready in the digital age, Filipinos need to be extra vigilant against the risks that come with this cutting-edge technology that poses serious threats to privacy and jobs,” Villafuerte said.
“In support of the President’s goal to future-proof our country while enabling Filipinos to take advantage of or cash-in on digital technology, the House ICT panel will give top priority,” he said, “to a proactive proposal designed to strengthen our defenses and institutionalize regulations against AI-generated deepfakes and other types of cyber fraud that, among others, wreck personal reputations, dupe people into investing in phony money-making schemes, or peddle political narratives that foment hatred or violence against certain targeted sectors.”
Although acknowledging the positive potential of a “truly digital Philippines,” President Marcos Jr. warned participants to the recent Manila Tech Summit 2025 at the Bonifacio Global City (BGC) in Taguig City that powerful tools like those of digital technology “cuts both ways,” such that “we must become more vigilant against the risks that come with it.”
Villafuerte said the President was correct in noting at the Manila Tech Summit that “fraudulent schemes and scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated every day with the aid of artificial intelligence, with digital currencies, and syndicates that know no frontiers.”
This is why, said the President, “we must also strengthen our defenses, manage risks, and block malicious attempts before they harm our people.”
In a Facebook post, Villafuerte pointed out that with an AI app, one can use a still photograph of one person to make it look like that person is dancing or talking.
At kung nami-miss mo, ang mga kapamilya, kaibigan mo, na nasa kabilang buhay na, ang AI, grabe talaga. Si Lolo Luis, ini-AI ko gamit yung Grok. Pinapagalaw yung lumang photo nya,” said Villafuerte.
“Kaya dapat, ngayon pa lang, bilang developing country, ang Pilipinas maglatag, magpasa, at gumawa ng AI framework nang sa ganon, transparent, maiwasan yung mga privacy infringement, at yung mga bias.”
He was referring to his late grandfather, Luis “Louie” Villafuerte Sr., who at one time or another had served as governor and congressman of Camarines Sur and was trade minister during the Ferdinand Marcos Sr. administration and government reorganization secretary during the Cory Aquino administration.
“AI is really growing at a very rapid pace. Sigurado, nagagamit po ito sa pag-aral, sa trabaho, at sa pang-araw-araw na pagkabuhay. And anything and everything that grows at a rapid pace comes with risks,” he said.
Added Villafuerte: “Kaya dapat, ngayon pa lang, bilang developing country, ang Pilipinas maglatag, magpasa, at gumawa ng AI framework nang sa ganon, transparent, maiwasan yung mga privacy infringement, at yung mga bias. Because AI is really data-based. Kung ano ang pini-feed na data sa AI, ‘yun ang kanyang natututunan. Kaya importante, AI framework na kung saan, ngayon pa lang, tinatrabaho po natin sa ICT committee na ang Pilipinas bumase sa mga guidelines worldwide, tulad po ng NIST at ng EU AI Act.”
NIST refers to the National Institute of Standards and Technology at the United States (US) Department of Commerce that deals with cybersecurity risks and protection.
The EU AI Act refers, meanwhile, to the European Union Artificial Intelligence Act that is considered as the first comprehensive regulation on AI.
Villafuerte said that the AI framework that the House ICT panel is tackling would include provisions to safeguard job security by preventing employers from laying off workers to replace them with AI or to force employees to multiply their work load by using AI.
“Hindi ka pwede tanggalin ng mga boss mo dahil, ‘Ooops, papalitan ka na ng AI, hindi ka na namin kailangan.’ You will be protected by the AI framework that we are drafting in the committee,” he said.
Villafuerte said one of the measures that the ICT committee will tackle is House Bill (HB) No. 3214, which aims to check the spread of AI-generated fraud by imposing strict rules on the use of deepfakes.
As proposed by HB 3214’s author—Parañaque City Rep. Brian Raymund Yamsuan—every Filipino shall have the inherent right to one’s own likeness, including one’s face, body and voice, without need of prior registration for trademark or copyright protection.
For those who want to register their likeness as a trademark, HB 3214 calls for the creation of a dedicated office under the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHIL) for this purpose.
To protect any person whose likeness is used without his or her consent in a deepfake, the bill gives the affected person the right to request removal of the unauthorized content from the platform on which it is hosted, and the concerned platform should take down the deepfake within 48 hours from the receipt of the validated complaint.
In the 19th Congress, then-Camarines Sur Rep. and now Gov. LRay Villafuerte introduced HB 10567 batting for the strict regulatory control of AI technology by penalizing those that produce or distribute deepfakes without making a public disclosure that these are AI-altered visual and/or audio presentations.
In HB 10567, Villafuerte proposed cash penalties ranging from P2 million to P5 million for producers or distributors of deepfake elements without any disclosure in these materials that these were altered with the use of AI or any other similar technology as well as on those who delete or tamper with such disclosures in these AI-modified voices or images.
Under HB 10567, any person who uses the generative AI system or any similar technology to produce or distribute deepfakes, with the intent to distribute such altered presentations over the Internet or knowledge that such deepfake shall be so distributed, are required to make a public disclosure that these are deepfakes.
