A circulating video of the late president Ferdinand Marcos Sr. supposedly warning the public about an impostor of his “dead son” is fabricated.
Posted on Facebook (FB) on Sept. 9, the 12-second clip shows a portion of Marcos Sr.’s speech saying his real son had already died. He can be heard saying:
“Kung sa darating na panahon eh mayroong tatakbong kapangalan ko, aba’y hindi ko anak ‘yan. Sapagkat ‘yung aking anak eh matagal nang namatay doon sa London.
(If in the future someone will run for office with the same name as me, that’s not my son. Because my son died a long time ago in London.)”
This video is edited. The original shows the late dictator hosting a party in 1985 in celebration of his wife Imelda’s 56th birthday. He told no such story in his speech.
By reverse image searching a few frames from the clip, VERA Files Fact Check found copies of longer footage of the event from two YouTube channels. One was uploaded in May 2010, and a clearer copy was later published in November 2016.
In the footage, Marcos Sr. sang a love song for his wife and gave a speech. Bongbong and his sister Irene also joined in the singing.
Notably, the audio in the circulating fake clip did not sound like Marcos Sr.’s voice in the original footage. The mouth movements in the clip also did not match the audio.
Voice impersonations – either done through artificial intelligence or with a real person – are commonly used to make fabricated statements appear legitimate.
The fake clip circulated amid the proliferation of online content this month claiming the incumbent President Marcos is a “clone” or an impostor of the deceased “real” Bongbong. VERA Files fact checked such a post last week.
The bogus posts by two FB users collectively garnered 14,220 reactions, 3,706 comments, 7,600 shares and 3.1 million views.
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(Editor's Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
