Manila, Jan. 29 -- The Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) has reported a surge in online trolls targeting government social media pages following increased transparency efforts in the West Philippine Sea (WPS), an official said Wednesday.

During the UTAK Forum in Quezon City, PCG Spokesperson for the WPS, Commodore Jay Tarriela said these trolls - persons or groups that deliberately post inflammatory messages - have been particularly aggressive in spreading misinformation about the WPS.

"I think this is their reaction to the transparency efforts that the National Task Force (NTF) for WPS is doing right now," Tarriela said.

He added that the PCG and the NTF-WPS are developing strategies to "dominate the public discourse about our factual narr...