An old campaign ad of former Interior secretary Mar Roxas spliced together with a clip of an unrelated video featuring lawyer Larry Gadon is gaining traction again this month. It is erroneously captioned “Mar tatakbo ulit (Mar will run again),” referring to the 2022 elections.
The post is false. Roxas has made no announcement about vying for a government position next year. Neither has the Liberal Party, of which he is a member, announced its candidates for the elections.
In a June 16 radio interview, the former senator’s wife, broadcaster Korina Sanchez-Roxas, said her husband told her he has no plans to run in 2022. “‘Pag tinatanong ko siya, sabi niya talagang hindi (Whenever I ask him, he says he really won’t [run]),” she said.
The erroneous video was published on March 25 by the Facebook page Blessed Be Philippines. Running for 99 seconds, it carried the following:
- 20 seconds from a minute-long campaign ad of Roxas titled “Ekonomista (economist),” published on his official page in December 2018;
- a video that Gadon posted on his FB page in January 2019, criticizing economists and oligarchs;
- and an unrelated clip of Palace spokesperson Harry Roque at a presser.
Roxas had lost in the last three elections he participated in. In 2010, he ran as vice president, but lost to Jejomar Binay. He again filed his certificate of candidacy in the 2016 elections gunning for the top post, which was won by President Rodrigo Duterte. In 2019, Roxas ran for senator but did not make it to the top 12 slots, ranking 16th.
In August 2020, VERA Files Fact Check debunked a similar post that used an old video of Roxas made to look like he is running in 2022.
Blessed Be Philippines’ false post currently has over 9,700 interactions, 800 comments, 683 shares and 153,000 views. FB users regularly engaged with the post in the three and a half months it has been up. It gained renewed interactions after Roxas issued a statement on Twitter regarding the death of former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III on June 24.
Blessed be Philippines was created on Nov. 23, 2016.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)