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We document the patterns and remind you of the history that gets buried when the news moves this fast.
It’s been a crazy two weeks since the last Decoded newsletter.
On May 6, news erupted with Franco Mabanta’s arrest the day before. The social media operator was nabbed in Pasig City with four other people, in an entrapment operation triggered by an extortion complaint from former speaker Martin Romualdez.
Rappler and The Nerve have been watching Mabanta even before he founded the Peanut Gallery Media Network (PGMN) in 2024. During the Duterte administration, he was a vocal loyalist who openly attacked mainstream media. He also proudly associated himself with the Dutertes, their allies, and the Marcos family. He was among the central figures of that era’s online propaganda machinery.
