Philippine Senator Ramon Revilla Jr has demanded clarification from Facebook over a series of blocks on his posts and information shared by officials and ordinary netizens, the Philippine News Agency reported on Tuesday.

In a letter to Facebook Philippine Office Director John Rubio, the senator is said to have stressed that he "joins government and media concerns about unmotivated incidents in the performance of official functions and their impact on national security, sovereignty and fundamental freedoms."

According to the agency, the Deputy Secretary of the President of the Philippines for Communications, Lorraine Badoy, criticized the manifestations of censorship on Facebook, but messages about this were then blocked both on media accounts and ordinary users.

The Philippine National Press Club called the incident not only an act of humiliation and shameless violation of civil liberties, but also a violation of the country's sovereignty, the agency said. According to him, the posts of government bodies, including the agency itself, are blocked on Facebook with the addition that they violate "public standards."

The Philippine agency specifically mentions that under the same pretext, the account of lawyer Vic Rodriguez, who represents presidential candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the upcoming May 9 elections, was blocked for 30 days from April 25. In the Philippines, they do not rule out that this is an attempt to influence the outcome of the elections in the country.

Facebook, represented by Meta, explained what was happening only as a technical problem, which is being worked on. More detailed explanations, as stated, did not follow.