A day before the elections, at least two FB accounts supposedly associated with Agusan del Norte police published several online posts wrongly tagging a number of Leftist groups as running in the elections.
The posts, which mirror a story VERA Files Fact Check debunked in February, dissuade readers from voting for 14 groups. However, more than half of those named were either not running, or were not party-list organizations at all.
Only Kabataan Partylist, Bayan Muna, Anakpawis Party-list, ACT Teachers Party-list, and GABRIELA Women’s Party ran in the midterm polls.
Migrante, Katribu, Kalikasan and Courage were previously disqualified from running, while the rest of the organizations are not party-lists groups:
- Makabayan, a coalition of party-lists and Leftist groups fielding senatorial candidate Neri Colmenares
- League of Filipino Students, a left-leaning student group
- Kilusang Mayo Uno, a labor group recognized by the International Trade Union Confederation
- Anakbayan, a youth activist group; and
- Kadamay, an urban poor group.
(Editor’s Note: VERA Files has partnered with Facebook to fight the spread of disinformation. Find out more about this partnership and our methodology.)
(VERA Files is a part of Tsek.ph, a collaborative fact-checking initiative by the academe and the media for the 2019 Philippine midterm elections.)
