A manipulated photo that shows Vice President Leni Robredo holding up a piece of paper with the text “Bong-Bong MARCOS FOR PRESIDENT” written on it has been circulating online since October last year.
It gained attention once more in the last week of January, after interviews of talk show host Boy Abunda with several presidential candidates were aired.
A reader asked VERA Files Fact Check to look into its veracity.
The circulating image is an altered copy of a screenshot from a January 2020 video uploaded on Robredo’s official Facebook (FB) page. The video was one of the vice president as she was serving lugaw (porridge) to families affected by the eruption of Taal Volcano that month in Tuy town, Batangas.
Thirty seconds into the clip, Robredo showed on camera a paper sign that read “LUGAW LENI,” a term critics use against her. In the circulating image, the Marcos endorsement replaced the text.
One of the pages that revived the manipulated image was Alpha Korak on Jan. 29, which wrote in its caption “Tama yan inay (That’s right, mother)” and a URL that supposedly leads to an “actual video.” However, when clicked, the link directs the reader to an e-commerce website.
Alpha Kokak’s post, which currently has over 400 interactions, was published three days after Abunda’s interview with Robredo was broadcast. Asked why Filipinos should not vote for Marcos in the upcoming elections, Robredo answered: “Number one sinungaling. Pangalawa, in the difficult moments, hindi siya nagpapakita (Number one, [he is] a liar. Second, in the difficult moments, he does not show up).”
A search using the social media monitoring tool CrowdTangle showed at least seven other FB pages and accounts have uploaded the fake image from Jan. 20 to Feb. 1 and collectively garnered 152 interactions.
But it has been on the Web as early as Oct. 11, 2021, traced by VERA Files Fact Check to a post in online forum phcorner.net, less than a week after Robredo and Marcos filed their candidacy for president.
Have you seen any dubious claims, photos, memes, or online posts that you want us to verify? Fill out this reader request form or send it to ‘VERA, the truth bot’ on Viber.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)