A Facebook post claims that tennis star player Alex Eala praised President Ferdinand Marcos in an emotional speech that brought him to tears. This is fake.
Eala has never delivered a speech praising the president. There are no videos or credible articles online documenting such a speech. If anything, it’s the other way around — Marcos praising Eala for her wins.
Two FB pages published on March 5 and 9 a graphic with photos of Eala and Marcos and a caption that reads:
“Alexandra Eala stepped onto the stage with her usual calm demeanor, but her eyes looked different today—deep, filled with emotion. After a few brief words of thanks, she suddenly paused, looked straight at President Marcos Jr. sitting in the front row, and slowly spoke with a trembling voice: “President Marcos… You are the man who taught the entire Philippines what resilience means, what national pride means. But today, I want to tell you something I have kept in my heart for a very long time. Do you know…”
Using Google Lens, it was found that the photos of Eala in the post were from the Women’s Tennis Association 125 Philippine Women’s Open quarterfinals at the Rizal Memorial Tennis Center in Manila last Jan. 29.
Part of the caption claimed that Marcos broke down in tears after hearing Eala’s speech. It read:
“President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. sat there, gripping the armrest tightly. His lips pressed together as he tried to hold back. But then… the tears fell uncontrollably. He broke down in sobs in front of thousands of spectators and television cameras. The hall remained silent for a few more seconds… then it exploded! Thunderous applause echoed everywhere. Eala stepped down and gently embraced the President. Marcos held her tightly, still sobbing, whispering something the microphones could not capture.”
The photo of Marcos in tears was fabricated using artificial intelligence. Results from AI detection tools Hive Moderation and SightEngine reveal the photo is 99.9% likely created using AI.
In the comments section of both posts is a link that leads to a full article on separate websites with the exact same text, detailing the supposed emotional encounter.
Eala’s most recent game was a loss to Karolína Muchová in the Miami Open on Monday, March 23. No credible news agency has reported about Eala mentioning and praising the president in her speech.
Also, Eala did not have any match on the dates the posts were published. Her first match at the Indian Wells Open was on March 6, when she won against Dayana Yastremska.
Because of Eala’s popularity through her sport, she has been the subject of fake content by Facebook pages for high engagement.
Eala had said she was aware about the rising number of disinformation associated with her name. After a game at the Philippine Women’s Open, she said:
“That’s not really under my control. I don’t have power over what other people post. I am aware that there have been a lot of fake news articles.”
The post by FB pages Tennis Plus with 44,000 followers as of writing and Tennis Now Insight with 22,000 followers have so far collectively garnered 11,348 reactions; 496 shares; and 1,205 comments.
Editor’s note: This fact check was produced with the help of a journalism student from Bicol University as part of their internship at VERA Files.
